Behind Enemy Lines
by Batmanskipper
Summary: Blowhole has a new secret plan to destroy the penguins. Kowalski 'joins' Blowhole to find out what it is. Will Kowalski discover Blowhole's evil plan before it's too late? Will Kowalski be exposed as a spy? What was Kowalski's connection to Blowhole before he joined the team?
1. Joining the Enemy

**This is set directly after the episode Invention Intervention. I've assumed that Skipper eventually found out that the invisibility ray was Kowalski's invention.**

"Kowalski, options," Skipper whispered. The team was scouting the perimeter of an old barn, thought to be Blowhole's new base of operations. Kowalski began to write on his clipboard.

"Well, I suggest that we through one of the upper windows. We can work our way down to ground level from there." Skipper nodded, turning to leave the safety of the tracktor and find a suitable window. Kowalski stayed where he was, looking to the left. A lantern flashed three times. Kowalski adjusted the inactive tractor's right headlight to point upwards, returning the countersign. The lantern blinked twice, and then switched off.

"What time do you suggest we leave, Kowalski?" Skipper asked sarcasticly.

"Sorry, Skipper." Kowalski brushed past the leader on the way to the front of the group. He pointed at a window, "That one looks accessible."

"Alright, boys. You heard Kowalski." The four penguins climbed up to the top window, jumping from one lose board to another. As soon as each penguin reached the top, they dived behind a bale of hay, as Kowalski's plan described. Private peered over the edge.

"Coast's clear Skippah." The youngest penguin informed his leader.

"Seems kind of easy. Too easy." Skipper replied sceptically.

"No, seems just about normal." Kowalski replied hurriedly.

"Alright, but my gut says…"

* * *

Five minutes later

"Hello, pen-gu-ins." Blowhole drove towards the captured birds. As soon as the team had climbed down to the ground a steel cage had fallen from the ceiling, trapping them, "Thank you, Kowalski."

"My pleasure." All eyes turned to Kowalski.

"You… You…" Skipper stuttered.

"Sorry Skipper, but science is my life, I couldn't let you take that away from me." Kowalski replied as one of the lobsters opened the door to the cage, allowing him to exit.

"Kowalski, your inventions were a danger to everyone in the zoo. More than that, everyone on the eastern seaboard!"

"All the better," Blowhole replied, the two allies bursting into maniacal laughter, "Now, pen-gu-ins..." Blowhole reached for a button on his Segway.

"May I?" Kowalski held out a wing.

"Of course." Kowalski climbed up the Segway to the control panel and pressed a button. Kowalski pointed to an image being projected across the back wall.

"Our evil plan is to…" Blowhole began.

"They're escaping!" Kowalski interrupted, pointing at the three penguins attempting slip out of the barn unseen. Kowalski grabbed a laser rifle from one of the lobsters and began to chase after them, but they had too much of a head start.

* * *

"Mission accomplished, boys. Kowalski's officially in Blowhole's operation." Skipper replied triumphantly.

"That was a pretty good idea of yours to use you and K'walski's disagreement over his inventions as an excuse for him to infiltrate Blowhole," Private replied, "I am worried about K'walski, though."

"I told you, Private. We have to find out what this new 'secret plan' is." Skipper replied.

"But I thought he was going to tell us his plan, after he captured us?"

"That was only a cover. He's actually working on something far more sinister. He hasn't even told Kowalski yet." Private nodded.

"What 'a note say?" Rico asked. Skipper placed a sheet of paper taken from Kowalski's clipboard on the table. Kowalski had passed it to him when he had brushed past on the way to the front of the group.

"Doesn't really matter now, all it said was that Blowhole had signalled to him that he needed to get us into the centre of the barn so the cage would fall on us." Rico swallowed the note.

"So what's going to happen next?" Private asked.

"That's up to Blowhole."

* * *

Kowalski banged his wing on the lab work surface. "I had him! I almost had him, but he got away!" He shouted.

"Welcome to my world," Blowhole grumbled, "Still, the new plan should take care of that." The new plan? Kowalski saw an opportunity to find out what this mysterious plan was, but it could also be a trap. Kowalski decided to wait until Blowhole definatly trusted him, before asking a question like that.

"I'm looking forward to that. Where do you keep the transistors?"

"Third drawer on the right."

* * *

Kowalski knew his room was bugged. So was the rest of the hideout. He also knew all his belongings had been searched and his inventions reverse engineered, to make sure they weren't hiding any non-evil surprises. Blowhole still didn't trust him yet. Kowalski stepped into the corridor outside the lab. He noticed a camera, and turned his back to make sure it couldn't see what he was writing. He pulled out his clipboard and started to record the information he had gathered that day. It wasn't a major breakthrough, just notes on the locations of cameras, the plans of the building, Blowhole's favourite cereal, stuff like that.

"What are you doing?" Kowalski turned around sharply, hiding the clipboard behind his back. Blowhole had poked his head out of the lab.

"Breath of fresh air. Think I breathed in a bit too much of that experimental knockout gas." Kowalski lied.

"What were you writing?" Kowalski handed blowhole the clipboard, removing the incriminating page while it was still hidden behind his back.

"It's a map of the base, its escape tunnels and security measures. It was supposed to be a surprise." Kowalski had prepared the map beforehand. It was all real, just missing out one or two extra traps Skipper had placed after Kowalski had gone undercover. Kowalski just hoped that Blowhole's sources weren't too up to date.

"Wonderful, though I wish you had told me. I would have shown you my three dimensional map creator."

"Well, It's not finished yet…"

"Good. Actually it was one of the red ones who gave me the idea. Do you remember when we used to sneak into the computer lab after school closed?"

"How could I forget something like that…

* * *

"Seriously?!" Kowalski replied incredulously. The dolphin and his new partner in evil were standing in the Scheming centre telling science related anecdotes.

"I know. I kept telling her E=MC cubed!" Blowhole laughed, "Anyway, after about two weeks she finally agreed with me that Einstein had gotten it wrong. I mean really? Where did he get E=MC squared from?"

"It took her two weeks? Did she even read the equations?"

"No. In fact…" Blowhole turned, "Oh, hello Doris. We were just talking about you."


	2. Operation: Sabotage

"D…D… Doris? I didn't realise you were here." Kowalski stuttered.

"Hi, Kowalski," Doris looked at him suspiciously for a few seconds, "Well, I know you don't like me standing around while you talk business, little B. I'll be in my room." She rushed off.

"Is it just me, or is Doris acting strangely?." Blowhole asked after his sister had left.

"Oh Doris…" Kowalski was staring off into space, smiling goofily. Blowhole waved a hand in front of his face.

"Earth to pen-gu-in."

"Wha… Oh, hi Blowhole."

"You still aren't over her, are you?" Blowhole asked. Kowalski's shoulders slumped.

"No, I'm not. One can always keep trying…"

* * *

"Kowalski, look at this." Blowhole pointed at the monitor. Kowalski turned away from his own computer and looked at the screen. It showed footage of the HQ, seemingly in real time. So that's how Blowhole always knew what they were up to: he had a camera in the HQ. Kowalski made a mental note to tell this to Skipper in the next signal, "I think they're getting too close." Kowalski pulled out his clipboard.

"I would suggest some kind of distraction…" Kowalski replied.

"That goes without saying. Can you think of a random evil scheme that would take… say, two days to uncover and thwart?"

"Shut off their power?"

"Very funny. How about… poison the zoo's water, nothing too complicated."

"I don't know, what if you accidently kill them by mistake?"

"I'd be a little disappointed, I am looking forward to using my secret plan, but either way they end up dead," Blowhole turned to a lobster, "You, red one, get me a plan of all the pipes supplying water to the central park zoo.

* * *

Kowalski checked to make sure there was no one else in the hanger. When he was satisfied that he was alone, he walked over to the jet. He thought back to earlier. If he had protested more, it would have been suspicious, but he couldn't let Blowhole poison the zoo's water. Kowalski entered the cockpit and waited. Finally, the pilot entered. Kowalski pounced, knocking the lobster out in one punch. Kowalski set him in the pilot's seat, and started the engines. He set everything up as if he was about to taxi to the runway, then set the aircraft in motion. At the last minute jumped out. Slowly the plan gained speed then crashed into the hanger's closed doors. Kowalski behind a fuel truck just as the other lobsters came to investigate. As far as he knew, there were no cameras in the hanger. He reached into his pocket to for the radio disguised as pen to notify Skipper of Blowhole's plan. It wasn't there. He looked around. There it was on the floor of the hanger, crushed beyond use. Damn.

"What do you mean you don't remember crashing the plane into the hanger doors!" Blowhole shouted at the dazed pilot.

"Just like I said, I got into the cockpit, someone jumped me, then everything went black. Next thing I knew, I was in the medical bay." The lobster defended.

"I don't want your excuses and I don't tolerate failure. Kowalski, do you believe his story?"

"Certainly not." Kowalski lied.

"See, nobody believes your excuses. You two," Blowhole pointed at two lobsters, "Get rid of him."

"No please! I swear I'm not lying! Noooo!" The lobster screamed as he was dragged from the room. Blowhole turned to another lobster.

"Red one, how bad is the damage?"

"Well, pretty extensive. Major structural damage to the wings and nose. Cockpit windows are shattered..."

"When will it be able to fly?" Kowalski interrupted. He was pretty sure he had succeeded in destroying the aircraft, but…

"Well, it would probably take me a couple of months to get it up and running, but I think, at this point, it would be easier and cheaper to just buy a new one." The mechanic replied. Kowalski did his best to hid his relief. Blowhole's plan to poison the zoo's water was officially over.

"Well, I guess we'll have to take the other plane." Blowhole replied. Kowalski cursed under his breath.

* * *

"Red one, how much longer will this take?" Blowhole asked a lobster. They were at a pumping station that handled the water for the area in which the zoo was situated.

"Almost done. Just have to attach the pipe and we should be ready to go." The lobster replied. Kowalski had to do something, fast. He pulled out his clipboard and began to write down his options. Finally, he decided to use the one that had a 65% chance of success. Kowalski turned his back on the group so they wouldn't see what he was doing then threw his voice so it sounded like a low moan coming from down the passage way.

"Blowhole, I think one of the humans might be waking up. I'm going to check it out." Kowalski stated.

"I'll send one of the red ones with you." Blowhole offered.

"No, they're needed here. I'll be fine." Kowalski rushed off down the passage.

* * *

Kowalski stared at the control panel, trying to find the off switch. Finally, he found a bright red button. He pressed it.

"Warning. System failure. Shutting down all pumps." A computer generated voice announced. Kowalski untied one of the workers. He smashed one of the glass coverings on a "in case of emergency" axe and smashed the controls. Then he noticed a phone in the corner of the room. The team was probably in Alice's office playing on the computer. If he called now, he would be able to tell them that his radio was broken.

"What was that!?" He heard a lobster ask not far down the passage. Dare he risk it? Kowalski picked up the phone.

"Hello, Skipper?"

_"Kowalski? Where are you?"_

"Listen, my radio is broken. Bring me my other one from my lab. Blowhole just attempted to poison the water supply for the zoo. Use that as your excuse to come to the lair. I've already sent you the location of the new lair."

_"Ok. Does 0200 tomorrow work for you?"_

"No, how about 1700?"

_"Works for us…"_ Kowalski heard footsteps approaching and hung up the phone. Kowalski lay down the floor as if he had been knocked unconscious. He felt something stick into his shoulder and let out a cry of pain. He looked down, it was the axe. He really shouldn't have left it on the floor…

"Kowalski, what happened? Are you okay?" Blowhole asked. Slowly, Kowalski lifted his head.

"Ow… the human, got lose. He…" Kowalski's vision began to swim, "I tried…"

"Red one, get him medical attention, now. Other red one, kill the human who did this to him." Blowhole ordered franticly. He picked up the injured penguin.

"Oh tuna… not again… not again…" He panicked as he felt the warm liquid pooling in his flippers.

* * *

Doris noticed the remains of the pen on the floor of the hanger. There was something suspicious about Kowalski's return. He despised her brother after what had happened in Brussels. What made him even more suspicious was the fact he had come back just when Blowhole had started on his 'secret plan'. She looked at the broken object. It looked a lot like the pen Kowalski had been using. She picked it up. A small microphone fell out of the bent metal. Kowalski was defiantly up to something.

* * *

_"Out of the lab, boys. School's closing." Mr Brown called. The two boys looked up from their invention._

_"Ten more minutes." Kowalski pleaded._

_"Kowalski…"_

_"We're almost at a breakthrough!" Blowhole added._

_"Fine, ten more minutes." Mr Brown shouted back. Tearing those two from a lab was nearly impossible. After ten minutes, true to their word, the boys left the lab._

_"Y'wanna come over and work on my radio?" Blowhole asked as the two boys walked down the steps of the school._

_"I'd love to, but I've got a lot of homework. How about in approximately," Kowalski did the calculations on his clipboard, " fifteen minutes?"_

_"Sure. I'll get my mom to make fish pancakes." Blowhole replied._

_"See ya."_

* * *

_"Sir, their invention is almost complete." The agent reported._

_"Good, good. Soon we can make our move." The Red Squirrel replied. _

_"I don't get it, sir. Why don't we just take it?"_

_"Why am I forced to work with such nincompoops?! Of course we can't just take it! We don't know how to work it. No, we need at least one of those two boys to explain it."_

_"Sir," another agent turned around from behind the computer he had been monitoring, "Rockgut is getting closer." The Red Squirrel thought about this for a few seconds._

_"That changes things. We begin Operation: Steal the Instruction Manual, tomorrow."_


	3. Instruction Manual: Stolen

**By the way, I changed the rating from K+ to T (for a reason).**

Time seemed to slow as Kowalski was carried on an improvised stretcher towards the aircraft.

_"You!? How could you? I trusted you, Blowhole. I guess it was all a lie."_

_"Kowalski… I didn't know…"_

The memory of that day in Philadelphia would haunt him for the rest of his life. "Red one, will he make it?" Blowhole barely whispered.

"Don't worry, he'll live. If we'd been a few minutes later, he would have lost too much blood. So far, unless infection sets in, he should make a full recovery…" The medic replied. A group of roughly fifty lobsters dragged a very confused station repair man into the room.

"I gotta be dreaming." He muttered, staring at the lobsters. Blowhole looked at him, an expression of pure hatred on his face.

"You wish." H pressed a button on his Segway. A blast of the built in freeze ray left the human, and a few unfortunate lobsters who didn't make it away in time frozen in a block of ice. Blowhole grabbed one of the lobsters, using it as a hammer, smashing the block of ice, fragments of the frozen creatures spreading to the far ends of the room. Blowhole smiled. Revenge certainly was sweet when it could be attained. Oh well, only 998 revenges to go.

_"You don't get it, do you? Killing. Revenge. You'll just end up wasting your life. I know what the humans did to you, but that was only what? Ten, twenty of them? You can't blame the whole species."_

_"Poor naive, Kowalski. I can't believe you listened to Skipper and his lies. I should have taken Red's proposition. Your side isn't any better."_

"Sir," One of the live lobsters, who had been examining the phone ran up to him, "The last number dialled was the central park zoo."

"Was it? It would seem the penguins have spies everywhere." Blowhole furrowed his brow in thought, "Re-dial that number. I want to speak to my nemesis."

"Alright, boss." The lobster handed the phone to blowhole and pressed redial.

* * *

_Several years ago_

_"Men, we are going to thwart that evil dolphin once and for all!" Skipper slammed his wing on the desk._

_"Skippah, you keep talking about an evil dolphin. Who is he? "Private asked._

_"No one you want to know, young Private. Dolphins who call themselves doctors, evil, savage, power hungry creatures…"_

_"Skipper, my best friend is a dolphin, and has a doctorate." Kowalski objected._

_"Who is this mysterious, dolphin friend of yours, Kowalski, "Skipper asked suspiciously, "How do we know he isn't one of the enemy. You could be sending him secrets over that electric communication do-hicky of yours."_

_"Skipper, I haven't divulged his name in the interests of safety. I wouldn't want a civilian getting hurt if we ever talked, god knows he's already gone through enough."_

_"But can you trust him?"_

_"Of course we can. I'd trust him with my life." _

Slowly Kowalski opened his eyes. It was the start of the same nightmare he'd had every night since Philadelphia.

"Kowalski? Are you awake?" a figure, blurred beyond recognition seated next to him asked.

"Ten more minutes, Skipper" Kowalski muttered, still half asleep.

"Kowalski?" His visitor began to come into focus.

"Oh, hi Blowhole. Sorry…"

"It's cool, honest mistake." Kowalski tried to sit up, but winced, grabbing his left shoulder.

"What… Oh."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I should have insisted that one of the red ones…"

"Blowhole, how could you have possibly known one of the humans would get free? My mistake, I was careless."

"It wasn't a mistake."

"It wasn't?"

"It was arranged."

"It was? By who?"

"Kowalski, the call on the phone in the pumping station was to the penguins." Blowhole stated grimly. He was exposed. Kowalski looked around the room. He was on the plane. There was no way out. Well, he was just going to have to take it like a penguin, with honour and dignity. Kowalski wondered of Blowhole would grant him a quick death, or more likely torture him for every secret he knew, and those he didn't.

"Wh… who was it?" Kowalski asked, trying to hide the fear in his voice.

"It was Skipper, Kowalski. He paid the human to kill you. I expected resentment, but…"

"I would never have guessed that… Skipper would stoop so low..." Kowalski replied. His cover wasn't blown.

"Kowalski, if I ever had any doubts about your loyalty, they're gone now. I'm so sorry you had to find out this way. I should have told you that, while…" Kowalski smiled. Things couldn't have gone better.

"Blowhole, what was it we made each other promise after I blew up the high school science lab for the seventh time?" Kowalski asked.

"Never hide the truth, whatever the reason." Blowhole replied. Kowalski regretted asking that, as he was hit with a pang of guilt. Hiding the truth was exactly what he was doing, from his best friend… no he was an enemy.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just the shoulder..." Kowalski thought for a moment, "You killed that human, didn't you?"

"Of course." Blowhole replied matter of factly, without even a shadow of guilt. Now Kowalski remembered why he'd turned down Blowhole's offer. All that killing and revenge. That was something he couldn't do.

* * *

Skipper was in the middle of a classified mission, in plain English, a game of solitaire on Alice's computer when the phone wrang. It had been about half an hour since Kowalski had hung up. "Who dare's interrupt my classified game of…" Skipper shouted angrily over the phone.

"Hello, Pen-gu-ins." Blowhole interrupted.

"Blowhole!" Skipper shouted, "How did you get our number? Kowalski how did he get our… oh..."

"Don't pretend you miss him. I would have expected a nasty email, an attempt to foil us, but bribing a human to stab him in the back? That's low. Even by my standards."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Kowalski was a much honoured…"

"Cut the crap. You ordered the hit."

"Really blowhole? You suspect us? Sure, we're mad he betrayed us, but those kind of things happen, just ask Manfridi and… oh mackerel"

"Yes, they ended up dead. Under suspicious circumstances."

"What happened to them is classified. But I can assure you that…"

"That you're playing cover up. Mark my words Skipper, I will not rest until you and your team pay for what you did to Kowalski."

"Blowhole, have you had one too many 'hundred year old herrings?"

"Mark my words." There was a click as Blowhole hung up the phone.

"Private, what the hell's he going on about?" Skipper asked, pacing the HQ.

"Well, Skippah, obviously something's happened to Kowalski, and Blowhole thinks we did it." Private replied.

"Yes, Private, that is obvious. I wonder why I didn't think of that," Skipper replied. He often turned to sarcasm when he was stressed, "Well, if Kowalski is at death's door, we can't exactly thwart him today. Rico, try and workout how to use Kowalski's computer and trace that call. Damn, I miss having him around."

* * *

"Strange that the call went to the penguin headquarters." Doris pointed out.

"What do you mean? The human was obviously an agent." Blowhole replied.

"Blowhole, humans can't understand penguin."

"They could have used their translator."

"Or your 'new best friend' could have been reporting on the fact that his radio transmitter was broken."

"Doris! How dare you…" Doris pulled the broken pen radio out or her pocket.

"Look at this and tell me I'm lying."

"Doris, that's standard issue for all my agents. Anyone could have dropped it."

"And it just happened to be found, just when your plane crashed and that 'human' managed to break through titanium handcuffs, using a standard issue penguin laser cutter, shut down the plant, call the penguins, then stab Kowalski. You know how hard it is to sneak up behind any one of those guys. Even you cant."

"No human is better than me."

"My point."

"Doris, I don't know what went down between you two, but I'm not letting your petty grudges stand in my way of what might be my only opportunity to… to mend things between me and Kowalski."

"If you didn't' feel so guilty you'd realise he's using you. Have you ever wondered why he suddenly forgives everything that happened in Philadelphia, and decides to be your best friend just when you're about to activate your new plan."

"Skipper banned him from inventing. I think that's incentive enough. For tinned sardine's sake, Doris, Skipper tried to kill him."

"Poor little brother, you probably won't realise what he's really doing until it's too late."

* * *

_"You have the invention?" The Red Squirrel asked._

_"Yes, sir." One of his agents replied._

_"And you are sure your information is correct?"_

_"Yes sir. The two boys pass the corner of Melman and Park between 1600 and 1615 on their way home from school. As far as we know, the only resident normally home at this time, is a Mrs McCann. We've arranged for her to have… engine trouble on the way back from her three o'clock bridge game at the Johnson Farm. She shouldn't be home before 1730."_

_"Good. Still we must work fast. Rockgut is far too close for comfort."_

* * *

_"I don't know about you, blowhole, but I say we should celebrate," Kowalski playfully punched his friend in the shoulder, "C'mon, we just finished the invention!"_

_"Kowalski, aren't we…"_

_"What are you, a square?"_

_"Technically we're worse than that. We're nerds."_

_"Nerds and proud of it. Come on, Blowhole. Y'know that store on seventh and main? A friend of mine tells me they aren't too picky on who they sell the 'you know what' to."_

_"For god's sake, Kowalski, we aren't even sixteen yet."_

_"So what? We just finished the invention of a lifetime! Free, unlimited power to everyone!"_

_"Look, Kowalski, you do whatever you want to, but I'm going home. I won't snitch on you, but I don't want any part of it either." Blowhole began to walk down the street._

_"Fine, have it your way." Kowalski shrugged, "You'll regret it tomorrow."_

_"No, I think you will. Just don't expect me to come up with excuses for your mother when she askes why you have a killer headache and smell like 'you know what'." Blowhole called over his shoulder before disappearing around a corner._

_"Square." Kowalski muttered._

* * *

_Blowhole rounded the corner of Melman and Park. Blowhole sighed Kowalski'd probably been hanging out with Harry Martin again. Blowhole sighed. Kowalski had achieved a bizarre balance, was openly geeky, yet managed to stay in with the cool crowd. It was probably because he was already 6"2'and, according to the girls, quite hansom. He already six of them had asked him to the next sock hop._

_"Some guys get all the luck." Blowhole muttered. Suddenly a hand was clamped over his mouth and he was dragged him into the bushes. Blowhole bit down on the hand. The unknown attacker removed it with a howl of pain. "Help! Somebody! Kowalski!" Blowhole screamed._

_"You idiot! I told you to use the chloroform!" A squirrel wearing an eye patch shouted at the man holding him._

_"Sorry sir." Immediately a strong smelling cloth was forced over his mouth and blowhole, leaving him no choice but to inhale the burning fumes. Black spots danced in front of his eyes as he struggled against the bigger animal._

_"Let's get going." The squirrel ordered._

_"But, sir, what about the other kid?"_

_"We only need one. It would have been nice to have the other just to make sure the penguins don't get their wings on it, but thanks to your incompetence, we'll have to be satisfied with just getting it first."_

_"Sorry sir."_

_"Be thankful that, for now, I am still in need of your services. Otherwise…"_

_Then everything went black._

**I wanted to stay away from the bullied geek stereotype, so I made Kowalski a popular, without hiding the fact that he's smarter than everyone else. If this confuses you, later chapters should clear things up. I left Blowhole as quiet and mild mannered, just so the difference between Blowhole as a kid and the Blowhole we all know and love is even more noticeable.**


	4. Knowlage is Power

"Sir, the outer door has just been breached, do we send reinforcements?" a lobster in front of a computer reported. Blowhole seemed unfazed.

"No." He replied.

"But, sir, my cousin's down there! If you don't send reinforcements that Rico guy'll kill em'"

"Would you rather it was you? Because that could be arranged…"

"No sir." The lobster suddenly found the surface of his desk extremely interesting. Blowhole turned back to the main monitor.

"Red one…" Blowhole was interrupted by the door to the scheming room being cut through with a laser, revealing four penguins.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the turncoat himself." Skipper glared at Kowalski, who was standing next to Blowhole on the platform in the middle.

"Come to finish me off?" Kowalski replied bitterly.

"You can never trust a human to do a penguins job. Make it easy on yourself and…"

"Alpha team!" Kowalski shouted. Immediately sixty lobsters dropped from the ceiling, cutting Private off from the rest of the group, "Beta team!" a similar group of lobsters landed on the other side, cutting off Rico from Skipper. The leader penguin was torn between his Private and his weapons specialist, both drowning in their own personal sea of lobsters. Kowalski, however did not give him much time to think this over, launching himself at the stunned leader.

_"It would seem Skipper's made his move. I'm not surprised. Things had been too quiet for too long." Blowhole growled._

_"So what do you normally do?" Kowalski asked._

_"What I normally do almost always fails."_

_"Maybe it's time you activated that secret plan of yours." Blowhole shook his head._

_"No, it's not ready yet. You know their fighting strategies well. What do you think they'll try to do?"_

_"Well, Skipper will always go for a head on assault, at least, without me to advise him. It's safe to assume that he will attempt to enter through the front door, and tell Rico to destroy anything in their way."_

_"What if it comes to a fist fight?"_

_"Well, first of all, we need to split them up. They're far more powerful as a team than individuals."_

_"How do you suggest we do that? Steel walls? Laser cages?"_

_"No, they've been trained to get through those," Kowalski began to write down the options on his clipboard, "I would suggest… we send in two teams of lobsters, fifty to a hundred each. I know skipper will enter in Charlie Bravo six niner formation, he'll take point."_

_"CB69?"_

_"Triangle. Skipper at the front, Rico to the right and private to Skipper's left. All facing forward," Kowalski pointed at the diagram on his clipboard, "We send in the first team to go between Private and Skipper to force the two away from each other. That should get both Rico and Skipper's attention, making them sloppy. Then we do the same thing with Rico."_

_"What about Skipper?"_

_"He's mine."_

_"Don't let revenge cloud your judgment…"_

_"You're one to talk, Mr 999 revenges to go. Don't worry, I can take him. He'll be so confused after being divided from his team that I'll have the upper wing."_

_"How do you plan to take on Skipper?"_

_"Well, that's a tricky one, because, none of us have ever managed to defeat him. Even as a team."_

_"Psychological attacks?"_

_"Needles, Manfridi and Johnson, friends in danger etc. It takes a while to wear him down with those."_

_"How do you plan to keep him busy long enough to remind him of those… events."_

_"Skipper's an excellent fighter, but he's also extremely predictable and we have the home turf advantage, but it's going to be a close race. I have to get to him psychologically before he takes me down."_

* * *

"You were saying Skipper?" Kowalski shouted, using his weight and the element of surprise to knock the leader flat on his back, winding him, "Sorry, but I'm not going down as easily as Manfridi and Johnson." _Wind him. This should buy me enough time to begin my attack. _Kowalski used Skipper's momentary weakness to deliver a deadly strike to the neck, which Skipper dodged.

"Manfridi and Johnson died because they were too naive to check for traps, Kowalski." Skipper replied, coughing slightly. Kowalski however, prepared for this, changed the motion into a hook to the side of the head. _Skipper will be assuming that I will try to mimic his fighting style. Head on attacks, martial arts etc. He won't think twice about blocking a textbook move, which will actually be a trick to get his guard down._

"They died because you never taught them to do anything but argue with each other. Just in case you didn't understand me, everything that happened to them, everything they did, it was all your fault." Skipper lashed out blindly with a punch to the beak._ By now I should be starting to get to him, but unless I do something to disorient him, he'll have me down in seconds, once the surprise has worn off. _Kowalski dodged, allowing Skipper to stand up, only to be felled again with a sidekick to the kneecap. This was followed by a sickening crunch as Skippers leg was forced into an unnatural angle. _Give him some hope, then dash it. That should speed up the process of wearing him down. He'll also try to stand up as soon as possible, once again avoiding any kind of weakness. That should leave him open to several attacks. _

* * *

"Skippah? Rico? What's going on?" Private found himself shut in a dark, small metal box. As soon as the lobsters had overpowered him, he'd been shoved in there.

"Private, this is Kowalski." A voice from outside the box spoke slowly.

"K'walski, I don't want to fight you. We all just want to be friends." Private replied.

"A little too late for that, don't you think." Kowalski replied. Private hugged his knees to his chest.

"I'm so sorry Kowalski…"

_"Private will try to avoid violence, instead opting to reason with me, but if any of his friends are in danger, he won't hesitate to protect them." Kowalski read from his notes on the clipboard._

_"You said Private wouldn't hesitate to help if the rest of the team was in danger. He is a decent fighter when he tries." Blowhole stated._

_"Then we make sure he doesn't see his friends in danger." Kowalski replied._

_"But he's already been attacked, won't he just escape whatever we put him in?"_

_"Not if you keep him occupied. Like I said, he'll try to reason with me."_

_"But, you'll be fighting… oh, you'll use a tape recorder."_

_"Yep. I'm pretty sure I know exactly what private is going to say._

* * *

_"What about Rico?" Blowhole asked. Kowalski once again consulted the detailed notes he had made on his former teammates._

_"If Rico can be contained, he's harmless. You'll want to make sure he doesn't regurgitate anything, so keep his beak shut at all costs." Kowalski stated._

_"That's not exactly an easy thing to do." Blowhole reminded._

_"The hard part is getting him down for more than a few seconds. Believe me I've tried. However, from studying security footage I've found that he doesn't check the area before attacking. He simply shoots at anything he sees."_

_"Y'think?"_

_"What we're going to do is keep Rico distracted with a head on assault, then use the old tunnels to get under him. From there, we can reach up through the floor tiles, knock him down and give him an anti-regurgitation drug."_

_"Still, he's quite formidable, even unarmed, but I guess you're going to suggest overwhelming force."_

_"We won't be able to hold him forever, and I don't think we're going to be able to kill him, so I suggest we follow my previous plan and simply stall them until we can escape."_

"Wha' goin' on!" Rico shouted, regurgitating various explosives, all of which found their way into the ranks of the lobsters. Rico seemed to be winning, most of the lobsters were either retreating or dead. Suddenly Rico felt his feet pulled out from under him and a bottle forced into his mouth. Had he been able to read the label, he would have seen it was a powerful and fast acting anti regurgitation drug. With his source of explosives cut off, and already in a vulnerable position, it did not take long for him to be overpowered by the lobsters. It was however, almost impossible to hold him, so the area in which they were trying to keep Rico contained remained a battlefield.

* * *

_"You will tell us what we want to know." The squirrel with the eye patch demanded._

_"I swear, I don't know how you weaponize the power cells. Kowalski worked with the explosive materials, I just worked on the focusing equipment." Blowhole replied. Red Squirrel brought the red hot brand closer to the young dolphin._

_"You will tell us how you remove and destabilize the power cells."_

_"I don't know!" Blowhole struggled against the metal shackles binding him to the table as the squirrel lowered the piece of hot metal closer. In fact it was so close blowhole could feel the heat radiating off of it._

_"So you want to play it that way," Blowhole's captor smiled, " Better men than you have talked after I have… persuaded them." Unfortunately for Blowhole, he really didn't know._

* * *

_Kowalski was brought into the principal's office by a very nervous teacher. The principle, herself, seemed just as on edge. The teacher opened the door and motioned for him to enter. The door was shut behind him, both teachers outside. One penguin stood with his back to him, examining the papers on the teacher's desk. One of them was an open file containing a photograph and personal information on him. _

_"Hey, you can't do that!" Kowalski objected. The rock hopper turned around, scrutinising the boy._

_"I'm Special Agent Buck Rockgut," the older penguin showed him his badge, "And thanks to this, yes I can."_

_"Do you know where my friend, Blowhole is?" Kowalski asked._

_"We were hoping to ask you that. From what we know, we believe he took the invention, the only copy of the plans and defected to the squirrels," Rockgut glared at Kowalski suspiciously, "I don't suppose your planning on joining him Jonathan Douglas Kowalski, aged fourteen and already an expert on explosive materials."_

_"That can't be true. Blowhole would never join the squirrels!"_

_"Then why don't you tell us everything you know, just so my men don't accidently kill him next time we raid one of the squirrel's hideouts."_

_"Would that be accidentally in air quotes?"_

_"Take it how you want, kid. Now, why don't you start with a description of the machine." Rockgut sat behind the principles desk. Kowalski went to sit down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk, but Rockgut's glare made it clear he was not to sit down._

_"Well, the invention, we haven't come up with a name for it yet, was supposed to work as a cheap sustainable energy source, not dependent on oil. Saving the environment and giving free power to the entire…"_

_"Cut the hippie talk and get to the possibility's as a weapon."_

_"It's not a weapon."_

_"Well the squirrels wouldn't want it if it didn't have a decent capacity for mass destruction."_

_"Well, the power cells, could be extremely unstable if exposed to maguffium 239…"_

_"Just how unstable?"_

_"Um… one fuel cell exposed to an equal amount of maguffium 239 would be about twice as powerful as a nuclear bomb, and well, with twice the range."_

_"What the hell have you gotten us into, kid," Rockgut replied wearily, " Well, keep talkin'…"_

* * *

_The Red Squirrel looked down at Blowhole's broken form._

_"I am now convinced that he actually didn't know." The red squirrel stated, seemingly unaware of the fact he'd nearly tortured a child to death on a hunch._

_"So should we pick up the Kowalski kid?" One of his agents asked._

_"No, the penguins already have him. We will just have to send it for reverse engineering."_

_"So where do we put the kid?"_

_"Send him to… the aquarium. We may have further use for him."_

_"Code name?"_

_"Flippy."_


	5. It's Nothing Personal

_"Boys, when we go up against Blowhole, we're also fighting Kowalski." Skipper announced gravely to the members of the team present._

_"But Skippah, won't he be holding back? I mean, he doesn't really want to kill us?" Private asked cautiously. He hated the idea of fighting a man he thought of as his older brother._

_"Private, if there's one thing I know that Kowalski knows that I know, it's that he's terrible at improvising. He hesitates too much. If we'd had more time, and we had a reliable method of communication, we would stage all of it. Unfortunately, we don't have either of those."_

_"Can't he just go easy on us?"_

_"I was coming to that before you interrupted me. Like I said, he's a terrible improviser. If he tries to fake it, or make it up on the spot, his cover's blown and we're all dead, so he's going to try his best to take us down. However, he knows that I know that he knows that no matter how hard he tries, he's no match for the rest of us."_

_"Skippah, I still don't get it." Private complained. Skipper rolled his eyes._

_"If Kowalski pretends he's attacking us, it would seem fake, so he actually will be trying to attack us. Lethal force and all. However, he knows that we'll beat him."_

_"I get it."_

_"Now, I want you all to bear in mind, Kowalski knows all our weaknesses. He will attempt physical and most likely psychological attacks. So, no matter what he says or does, he doesn't really mean it. Well, he does, but he doesn't… oh forget it. Just don't take anything he says personally."_

* * *

Skipper remembered the briefing he gave his men earlier. He knew Kowalski didn't really want to hurt him, but that didn't make it any easier to keep a cool head. Some of his attacks were pretty low.

"You thought you could dispose of me just like them. Wipe the red out of your ledger, keep your own record clean, pretend your 'failures' never existed. " Kowalski dodged a punch, grabbing the wing and twisting it painfully. The pain in his leg had already made it pretty much useless. If he lost a wing too, Kowalski might just win.

_"I've got the pen."_ Skipper whispered, then shouted, "That was classified information Kowalski. Do you have any idea what it would do the morale of my team if they ever found out the truth about them." Skipper elbowed Kowalski in the stomach, freeing himself from the lock.

"Liar!" Kowalski shouted, then following Skipper's example replied, _"use it as a weapon. I'll disarm you."_

"You wish," Skipper dodged Kowalski's roundhouse kick. As per Kowalski's instructions, Skipper held the pen like a knife, attempting to stab Kowalski in the eye. Kowalski blocked and wrenched the weapon out of his wing. He inspected the object.

"Really Skipper? You must be desperate if you have to use a pen as a know, Skipper. I was thinking about what I'm going to do to your dear Private. If I remember correctly, he doesn't like cockroaches. Maybe I'll…" Skipper punched him in the beak. Kowalski stumbled backwards, "What was that for?"

"SHUT UP!" Skipper shouted, "_Just staying in character."_ Kowalski pulled a needle, pointing it at Skipper.

_"Needle contains rare tree frog venom. Blowhole should get me the antidote in time." _Kowalski lunged at Skipper with the needle, purposely missing and leaving himself open. Skipper grabbed the wing with the needle, trying not to look at the feared object, twisting away from himself so it was pointed at Kowalski.

_"Are you insane?"_ Skipper hissed.

_"Possibly."_

_ "Very funny. What if he doesn't administer the antidote in time? You'll be dead."_

_"Well I couldn't exactly fill it with a sedative. We're trying to kill each other, remember. The keys to Private's container are in my other wing. Go down the corridor to the first door, Private's in there. You know where Rico is. I calculated the number of lobsters so you two should be able to beat them easily together."_

_"I hope your right. Good luck."_ Then, Skipper shouted, loud enough for Blowhole to hear, "Say hello to Manfridi and Johnson for me, Kowalski." Then the shorter penguin drove the needle into Kowalski's wing, snatched the keys from his other wing and belly slid as fast as he could in Rico's direction.

"Blowhole… cough… antidote…" Kowalski choked, the poison already starting to take effect. Blowhole drove over as fast as he could, handing Kowalski another syringe, which he promptly used. It took Kowalski a few minutes to recover, but he dragged it out a few more, to give Skipper a better chance of getting away. Blowhole stayed with him the whole time.

"Kowalski, I hate to tell you this, but I told you so." Blowhole half teased. However, it was clear just how worried he was.

"Yeah, you did." Kowalski replied weakly. He was beginning to have doubts as to whether he was on the right side… no, "Kowalski. Remember Philadelphia," He muttered.

"Sorry?"

"Just saying… thanks."

* * *

Blowhole was sitting at the desk in his room reading a book when Doris drove in. "What now Doris?" Blowhole asked, not even bothering to look up from the book he was reading.

"I don't get it, why don't you see it?" Blowhole's older sister asked. Still blowhole didn't look up from his book.

"Seriously, Doris, don't you think Kowalski's been through enough today? For canned tuna's sake, his old leader just tried to poison him! We only just gave him the antidote in time," Doris snatched the book out of her brother's flippers, finally getting his attention, "Doris, I was reading that!"

"Listen to me, if you'd looked a little closer, you'd have found that Skipper only gave him a half dose. For someone trying to kill, that's pretty non-lethal." Blowhole made a dive for the book. Doris held it just out of reach.

"So? Doris, it's one thing to have someone else do your dirty work and quite another to do it yourself. Skipper worked with Kowalski for years. The two were pretty close. Obviously he lost his nerve."

"Skipper? Losing his nerve? He never lost his nerve with Manfridi and Johnson. He nearly put Private in hospital when he tried to force him to get his flu shot."

"That was putting someone in hospital," Blowhole stopped trying to retrieve his book, "Doris, have you ever killed someone before? Someone close to you?"

"I was in on Philadelphia."

"You were watching. Doris, you have no idea what you're talking about. Now give me back my book and go away. Don't even think about bothering Kowalski." Doris was about to hand her brother back the book when she froze.

"Kowalski gave this to you, didn't he?" She asked cautiously.

"Yeah. Why is it a crime to borrow a book from a friend." Blowhole replied sarcastically. Doris began to flip through the pages.

"You just made me lose my page!" Blowhole protested. Doris stopped, held one of the pages open and pulled out a tiny electronic bug.

"Just as I thought. Bugged. Tell me that isn't proof that…" Blowhole took back the book examining it for a few seconds. Then he looked at the front of the book. A white label stuck on the inside cover read: Property of Kowalski. Don't even think about using it for target practice (That means you Rico). Blowhole peeled back the label. Underneath it read: Property of Skipper (contents classified).

"See, this book belonged to skipper. Skipper bugs his coffee machine. Of course he'd bug the book."

"Little B, this is a book on quarks and other subatomic particles. Do you really think Skipper would be able to read that? I don't think he even owns a book."

"Doris, none of us can read. We just look at the pretty pictures and equations and pretend we can. Skipper probably bought it as a door stop. Kowalski would naturally object to that and take it back. Now, if you have nothing more to say, give me back my book."

* * *

_Blowhole had been missing for five years. Kowalski had never forgotten, not for one moment. In fact, he had spent all his free time, which he used to spend on inventing, searching for him. Now he was eighteen, and he had to get on with life. He knew that's what Blowhole would want. He had just finished his degree in engineering, he started when he was only sixteen, when war was declared between the puffins and the penguins, started by a diplomatic scandal in Denmark. That was when Rockgut called him up. He wanted him to join this specialist team currently posted to the central park zoo. Kowalski figured that if anyone had the resources necessary to find his old friend, it was them. _


	6. A Mutual Acquaintance

**For all of those who are wondering why this chapter seems kind of strange, it's all flashback, taking place several years after the last one. **

"The rat king insisted that I arrive by 0600, three minutes from now, or he would kill everyone in the Consolidated Amalgamated Building. He insisted that I come alone" Skipper explained to his team who were hiding behind an empty car on the opposite side of the street to the building in question, "Kowalski, give me some entrance options that don't endanger the hostages." Rico regurgitated Kowalski's clipboard and handed it to him. Kowalski accepted it gingerly. He'd been on the team three months, and still Kowalski hadn't gotten used to that. It was just so… scientifically… impossible.

"Well, we can always negotiate…"

"Kowalski, how many times have I told you that I will completely disregard any nonviolent options." Kowalski rolled his eyes. Skipper glared at him. When it came to strategy, Skipper only had one. Attack.

"Okay. How about this,…"

Skipper walked up to the entrance to the skyscraper. The rats guarding the doors opened them, allowing Skipper to enter.

"Y'got any weapons?" One of the rats asked. Skipper shook his head. Despite his answer, the rats still searched him. When they found nothing, they allowed him to continue. He walked until he was in the centre of the lobby and then stopped. He made a mental head count of everyone in the room. Good, they'd brought everyone to the bottom floor to act as a shield.

"We don't have all day here, y'know." One of the rats complained. Skipper said nothing, instead raising a flipper to his mouth as if to cough. Three smoke pellets, he had been holding in his mouth fell out into his hand. Immediately, he smashed them on the floor. No sooner had he done this than the entire room was filled with smoke.

Kowalski and Rico, and Private each climbed through windows on the opposite sides of the room, each wearing a gas mask and infra-red goggles. As soon as they saw a penguin shaped heat signature, they tossed Skipper similar equipment. Kowalski had remotely closed all the ventilation and windows, but despite this, they only had a few minutes left before the smoke dissipated. Kowalski was convinced the rats wouldn't start shooting hostage, since they were really the only thing standing between them and the penguins. They thought it made them safer. It didn't. The four penguins grappled to the ceiling, each looking for a rat stupid enough to stray from the group. Skipper spotted one. He grappled so he was directly above, then dropped strait down, landing on top of the enemy. The rat was only able to let out a small whimper before he was knocked unconscious. The hostage, however, let out a lout scream. Skipper grappled up to the ceiling again. Immediately, the rats who had heard the scream began to panic. Even more of them strayed from their groups. Every time one did one of the penguins would pick them off.

When the smoke cleared, the rats were all out cold. Rico and Private left to help Skipper with the rat king. Skipper was more than capable of defeating the mutated rat himself, but it was faster with Rico. Kowalski was left to take care of the hostages. Everything had so far gone to plan, and Kowalski had only one hostage left when one of the rats, who had regained consciousness earlier than the rest, but had been smart enough not to reveal this, jumped up, grabbed a weapon and pointed it at one of the few remaining hostages.

"I'm gettin' out of here." The rat demanded shakily, pointing his weapon at the dolphin. Kowalski thought about this for a few seconds.

"Alright. Follow me. I'll tell the police not to shoot." Kowalski, the rat and the dolphin began to walk towards the door. Kowalski opened it and held it open for the rat after instructing the police not to shoot. The rat walked through the door. Immediately Kowalski grabbed the paw holding the gun, pointing the firearm away from the hostage. The rat did, however managed to fire a wild shot before he was restrained. He slammed the door between them shut, making sure the rat's paw was in the way. The rat dropped the gun as soon as the heavy door broke his wrist. Kowalski opened the door and kicked the rat in the head, knocking him out once and for all. Kowalski walked over to the dolphin, who was clutching the flipper the wild shot had grazed. "Here, let me look at that." Kowalski offered. The dolphin cautiously held out her flipper.

"Thank you." She whispered tentatively.

"Just doing my job, ma'am," Kowalski walked her over to one of the ambulances, took a bandage, the paramedics had far more serious injuries to deal with, and began to clean and bandage the wound, "Don't worry, it was only a graze. You should be fine." The dolphin winced as the bandage was wrapped around her flipper.

"M… My name's Doris."

"Kowalski… My name's Kowalski… ma'am." Their flippers touched and it was like a spark of electricity had passed between them. Kowalski had never been nervous around a girl before, but Doris was different. He knew it.

* * *

Kowalski and Doris had been dating for several weeks when Kowalski drove up to her house in the team's pink convertible, which he had painted a less embarrassing black just for the occasion. Doris stepped out of the house. Kowalski climbed out of the car, and the two kissed.

"Doris? Doris did you take my notes on thermodynamics?" Someone inside the house shouted. The voice seemed strangely familiar. Finally the owner of the unknown voice poked his head out of the house, "It's really not funny Doris… Kowalski?"

"Blowhole!? How…? Where…?" Kowalski stuttered.

"You two know each other?" Doris asked. Kowalski ignored her question.

"I've been looking for you… since…" Kowalski stuttered, "What happened to your eye?"

"Red's final attempt to make me talk. I knew you wouldn't give up on me." Blowhole replied, the two still frozen in shock.

"Rockgut said you'd defected."

"More like kidnapped. You'd have disappeared with me if you hadn't decided to go get yourself drunk."

"I'm sorry… It should have been me…"

"Hey, I'm not holding it against you. I'm actually pretty glad it happened that way. One of the reasons I kept trying to escape was I wanted to get back to the lab keep working on the anti-homework machine. So, you could say that you were partially responsible for my escape."

"So, I'm guessing our date's off," Doris began to walk back into the house, "You two definitely need some catching up time."

Blowhole passed Kowalski a cup of coffee. The two were standing in the kitchen in Doris' house. Doris had gone out to the film with a friend instead.

"So, what've you been doing since you escaped?" Kowalski asked.

"A lot of inventing, went to university, got a doctorate, met my step sister Doris, and generally tried to live a normal life. You?"

"Rockgut drafted me. I'm part of a team based in…"

"Let's keep politics out of this." Blowhole interrupted. Kowalski scrutinized him for a few seconds.

"You're on the other side, aren't you." Blowhole lowered his head.

"In a way, yes. I'm technically only sided with myself, but I crossed paths with a penguin and now I'm considered an enemy. You see, I built up a lot of revenges when I was in the aquarium. One of them was against a penguin team."

"Why do you hate the penguins?"

"I don't. Just this one team. They went to break someone out of the aquarium. They saw me there. They recognised me from my file. One of them even spoke to me. They promised to take me back with them, but they just left me there. Lousing five years of my life is something I can't forgive."

"I can understand that. I have an entire file on what I would do to any of the squirrels if I ever caught up with them."

"So, cause I'm on the other side…"

"It doesn't matter. Unlike my captain, I don't believe in demonising the enemy. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

**Please check out my new poll!**


	7. Doris Gets Lucky

Kowalski was photographing documents when Doris entered the lab.

"Kowalski, what are you doing!?" She exclaimed. Finally the proof she needed. Kowalski looked up from the desk.

"Oh, hi Doris. Just photographing documents. "He replied casually.

"Photographing documents! I always knew you were a spy! I'll bet you were about to send those…"

"I'm not a spy, Doris. The photocopier's broken."

"What's the photocopier got to do with…"

"Photographing documents? Well, we still need to copy the documents even if it is broken. Your brother told me to photograph them then email the photos to the computer in the scheming room where they can be printed." Doris looked at him warily, then opened the door.

"Little B?" She shouted down the hallway, "Did you tell Kowalski to photograph the plans for the Mindwiper?" Blowhole poked his head out of a room down the hall.

"Yes. Why, is there something wrong?" He called back.

"No, everything's fine. Sorry to bother you," she gave Kowalski an 'I'm watching you' look before sitting down at the computer.

"Sending secret messages, Doris?" Kowalski joked.

"I'm checking my email."

* * *

Doris waited for Kowalski to disappear into down the corridor before picking the lock on his room. Cautiously she entered, checking for any hidden traps or cameras. When she was satisfied that there weren't any, she began to search the room. A few minutes later, she was done. She went to leave but turned around, just before opening the door.

"Almost forgot…" She muttered, before placing a small bug just above the door frame.

* * *

"Blowhole, has one of your red ones been messing around with my lock?" Kowalski demanded, bursting into the scheming room.

"Sit down, Kowalski." Blowhole commanded, an almost inaudible note of sadness in his voice. He and Doris were seated in the unusually empty scheming room. Kowalski sat down in one of the chairs opposite.

"Um… what's going on?" Kowalski asked, doing his best to look confused, though he knew all too well what was going on.

"Kowalski, Doris found something… in your room."

"Wait a minute. You had Doris search my room?"

"No, I specifically told her not to, but that's beside the point. Can you please explain what this is?" Blowhole handed Kowalski a sheet of paper that had obviously come from his clipboard. It was the notes he had taken on the positions of guards and cameras.

"I don't know. It looks like some kind of schedule. What was it doing in my room?" Blowhole sighed.

"Please, Kowalski, don't make this harder than it already is. The impressions at the top of the paper match those left by your clipboard, the paper type is the same as the one you use and the handwriting is clearly yours."

"Ever heard of a forgery? I admit a drew a map of the lab just because I kept getting lost, but I already know your favourite cereal. Why would I need to write it down?" Doris stood up.

"It's no use denying it. Me and my brother know exactly what you've been up to. Red ones, kill the spy." She ordered.

"STOP!.. Stop, don't…" Blowhole panicked, "Let him have his say."

"So you think I'm a traitor because you found an obviously forged document in my room? Do you have any idea just how many of your 'red ones' hate my guts?"

"Damn it, Kowalski!" Blowhole shouted. It was obvious how stressful this was for him, "Listen to this." Blowhole pressed a button on a tape recorder.

"No Skipper, Blowhole hasn't revealed his scheme yet… I can't risk a confrontation, it's me verses five hundred lobsters… I'll try and find out tomorrow… yes I'm sure he believes me… someone's coming. Click." Blowhole stopped the tape.

"Try and deny that!" Doris exclaimed triumphantly, grinning from earhole to earhole. Blowhole noticed she seemed to be a little too happy that Kowalski wasn't in the safest of positions."

"I… It's my voice, alright… I just don't understand." Kowalski stuttered, desperately trying to think of some way to get out of this.

"What is there not to understand? You've been caught red handed." Doris replied triumphantly.

"What I'm trying to say is that I never said that. Someone is obviously trying to frame me!" Kowalski explained, trying his best to remain calm. Blowhole tossed him a pile of photographs. They were taken from the pumping station's CCTV footage. They showed Kowalski sabotaging the pumping station. Kowalski scrutinised them for a few seconds. Then it came to him, "Blowhole, who was the last person to log onto the computer in the lab?"

"Why the lab?" Blowhole asked.

"Because it's the only one with photo and sound editing software." Kowalski replied. Blowhole thought about this for a few seconds, then typed in a number on a keypad on his Segway, then picked up a telephone receiver next to the keypad.

"Red one, check the computer in the lab. I want to know who was the last person to log on," Blowhole waited a few seconds, "Are you absolutely sure?.. Okay." Blowhole turned to face his sister, "It was you, Doris."

* * *

_Doris was walking towards the penguin habitat when she heard the singing. It sounded like… but it couldn't be… She followed the sound, keeping behind the bushes. What she saw was the last thing she ever expected:_

_"Tell it to the swagger end baby," Kowalski sang, openly flirting with the hen standing nearby, "Darling, I'm a start a scandal, 'cause you know that you can't handle the Kowalski."  
"No! I'm above this! The brain is stronger than desire," the hen protested, but it was obvious she was slowly being won over.  
"Ain't nothing stronger than desire." Kowalski continued. Doris clamped her flippers over her ears. She couldn't watch._

_Finally, she opened her eyes out of curiosity. Maybe it was just one big misunderstanding? Perhaps Kowalski only had to pretend to flirt with her to keep her distracted while… she didn't know what, but it had to be something. There was no way Kowalski would cheat on her. However, the sight that met her eyes did all but confirm her optimistic theories. She was kissing him!_

_"Kowalski…!?" Doris stood up, staring at the unfolding scheme. Kowalski looked up pushing the blue hen away._

_"Doris?" Kowalski stared at the newcomer._

_"How could you…" Doris fled the zoo, tears streaming down her face._

_"Doris, please! It's not what you think!" Kowalski shouted, but his pleas fell on deaf ears._

* * *

_"So that's what happened." Kowalski finished his story, his head in his wings._

_"Harsh," Blowhole replied. The two normally met for coffee, to discuss invention ideas, at a little café in the Brooklyn zoo, every second Wednesday, so Blowhole was somewhat surprised when Kowalski called him up, saying that they had to talk immediately._

_"I know. I tried to tell her it was all part of the mission… then she forced herself on me. I swear on the penguin oath I would never cheat on Doris. I love her. After what, well, she's not talking to me .You're her brother, what should I do?"_

_"Well, that's kind of a tough question, since I've only known her six months. She's only dated one other man since I met her."_

_"What happened to him?"_

_"Oh… she dumped him for you. He was some important commander. Rich, if he plays his cards right, famous, you know the type I mean."_

_"Who is he? I might know him…"_

_"I'd rather not…"_

_"Yeah, shouldn't have asked that. So what do you think I should do?"_

_"Well, she still keeps your picture on her dressing table, so you've got a chance…" Kowalski pulled out his clipboard._

_"There's only two ways I can do this: throw myself at her feet and beg for forgiveness, or give her time to calm down, then see how much of our relationship I can salvage." _

_"Well, the last guy took the first option."_

_"Then I'll take the second."_

_"No, the guy before that, I think his name was Julian, tried that. She told him he was weak and still hates him to this day. She's friends with the first guy."_

_"Does this rich and powerful first guy know about me?"_

_"No. He just knows Doris is with someone else. He prides himself on being a gentleman, so he didn't ask." Kowalski looked at his watch. He had to get back to base soon. He stood up._

_"Well, thanks for the advice. I'd better get going before Skipper assumes I've joined the enemy and decides to move the team to the moon and destroy the earth."_

_"No problem. Your boss really needs a vacation. Anyway, I hope you get back with Doris. I'll try and put in a good word for you."_

_"Thanks."_

* * *

_The phone rang. Doris made a dive for the receiver. Maybe it was Kowalski?!_

_"Hello, Doris speaking… the furniture deliver is going to be late… oh… no everything's fine… bye." Doris hung up the phone, disappointed._

_"Doris, have you seen my disintegration ray?" Blowhole shouted up the stairs. She didn't answer, "Doris?"_

_"Guess." She replied venomously. How could Kowalski have forgotten her so fast? Unless… he really he'd left her for that blue hen. Blowhole climbed the stairs._

_"What's wrong? Is it Kowalski, cause you know, he's really a good guy. I think you're making a mistake by…"_

_"My only mistake was…" Doris interrupted, then she paused, smiling deviously, "My only mistake, was thinking he would ever do anything to hurt me."_

**What's Doris up to and who is this mysterious other guy? If you've got any guesses, i'd love to hear them. For all of you who are also following She Never Looked Back, that is now officially, off hiatus. If you want to help choose what my next story is going to be, check out my poll, or if you have any other ideas, put them in a review or a PM.**

**The song, called The Kowalski, was taken from the episode Mental Hen.**


	8. Philadelphia Story

_The rain poured down Skipper's feathers as he waited just outside the central park zoo. "Doris?" he noticed a large shadow near the edge of the trees. The shadow moved forward and into the light, revealing, as expected, Doris. _

_"Skipper… I need your help." Doris drove forward until she was directly in front of the penguin in question._

_"What do you need help with." Skipper tried to keep his voice devoid of emotion. Doris had met someone else. If he made a fuss now, they might not even remain friends._

_"Skipper, It's my brother…"_

_"You have a brother?" Skipper asked. He'd honestly never heard Doris mention any siblings._

_"Yeah. You… you know him."_

_"I do? When did we meet?"_

_"At the aquarium."_

_"He's not…"_

_"Blowhole. Blowhole is my brother." Skipper stared at her for a few seconds. He understood that this was hard for her, and that he should be proud of the fact she had trusted him with this information, but his ex-girlfriend was his arch enemy's sister? That wasn't exactly easy to process._

_"Who's the other guy, Doris. Please tell me it isn't Hans…" Skipper panicked. He couldn't bear the thought that he had been dumped for someone on the other side._

_"He's another officer, Skipper. A penguin officer. You should know by now that I don't share my brother's political views." Doris snapped._

_"I'm sorry, Doris. I shouldn't have asked that." Doris nodded. Always the gentleman, even if he was a bit old fashioned._

_"Skipper… Blowhole's lost it. I'm afraid he might..."_

_"Why don't you leave, if you're afraid of him?"_

_"Skipper, he's been having me followed. It took me a good half hour to louse my tail coming here, even now I'm not sure how long I have until he catches up with me. I'm afraid that if I run, he'll eventually find me. No, I came to you, because I want you to make me disappear. Just like you did when Hans blew your cover in Denmark."_

_"It'll take me one or two weeks to get things cleared with my superiors and set everything up, but I should be able to do it."_

_"A week is too long. I need to be gone in the next couple of days."_

_"Are there any relatives you can stay with temporarily?"_

_"I've got a cousin. She has a house in Philadelphia."_

_"Good. Would your brother suspect you had gone to her's if you ran away?"_

_"He doesn't know I have any other living relatives."_

_"Tomorrow, while your brother is out at Invexpo, I want you to take the train to Boston under your own name. When you get there, dispose of anything you will not need for the journey. Then I want you to change to a train to Philadelphia. Purchase the tickets under an assumed name and pay in cash. Under no circumstances use your real name or credit card and make sure you get a new cell phone. Give me your cousin's address and me and the team will meet you once things are set up on my end. Do you understand?"_

_"Thank you, Skipper."_

* * *

_"So who's this lady friend of your's we're picking up?" Kowalski asked as the human who's suitcase the team was hiding in disembarked at Philadelphia's 30__th__ street station. As soon as the bag was clear of the train the penguins jumped out and behind a luggage cart._

_"Strictly need to know. "Skipper replied tersely._

_"Why do I even bother asking…" Kowalski grumbled. Skipper glared at him, "Nothing, sir."_

_"Good. Rico, map. Kowalski work out the fastest way to our target's location, Private… just watch what Rico and Kowalski are doing."_

_"What about you, Skippah?" The younger bird asked._

_"Planning our next move. Same as Kowalski." Skipper replied, though he was really thinking about Doris. Would he ever see her again? The papers he'd received from her superiors said she was going to Vancouver._

* * *

_Skipper knocked on the door. It opened to reveal a tall blue eyed dolphin, who looked a lot like Doris._

_"We're here to see Dana ma'am." Skipper told the woman._

_"Dana?... oh," the woman stood to the side and beckoned for them to enter, "Dana's in the guest room. In the basement."_

_"The basement?" Skipper questioned._

_"Dor… Dana was afraid that someone would see her, since all the other rooms have windows. It was a pretty bad excuse, but Skipper was too worried about Doris to notice._

_"Wait a minute, Dana's a code name. You started to say Doris, is that her real name?" Kowalski questioned. Skipper looked at him for a second._

_"Yes, she was my girlfriend until recently. Do you know her?" Skipper asked cautiously. Kowalski froze. Skipper was the 'other guy'. _

_"No, sir. Just curious." Kowalski responded. He didn't want Skipper to know he'd stolen his girlfriend. That would make life in the HQ, awkward, to say the least. Still, it hurt that Doris had gone to Skipper instead of him, but it made sense considering the last time he'd seen her._

* * *

_Skipper and the team walked down the staircase that led to the basement. At the bottom was a plain white door, that most likely led to Doris's quarters. However, as soon as Skipper turned the handle, a powerful sleeping gas gushed from the keyhole._

_"Doris… cough..set me up…" Was all Skipper managed to whisper before he dropped to the floor, unconscious._


	9. No More Safety Net

_Kowalski hated being knocked out. In fact, he hated it almost as much as he hated Julian's late night parties, which had almost the same effect on him. He looked down._

_"Babbage's difference machine!" Kowalski exclaimed. He was chained to a missile. This wasn't exactly his favourite thing to wake up to, but it wasn't the most unusual. The four penguins were bound about half way up the missile at equal intervals, if it were a square each penguin would be on a different side. He surveyed the scene, which was harder to do without his option's clipboard, but he could do it._

_Condition of fellow team members: Private: unconscious. Rico: conscious but not of sound mind, at least much more so than usual. Skipper: condition unknown (on opposite side of missile)._

_Restraints: Titanium alloy, extremely expensive, almost unbreakable._

_Missile: very big, very scary. Most likely armed. No evidence as to what the warhead contains, though design is consistent with nuclear._

_Hostiles: 32 detected. All lobsters. Henchmen not consistent with any known enemy's MO._

_Personal Emotional state: Heartbroken._

_Conclusion: Enemy unknown. Obviously set up by Doris, so it can be concluded that the two are working together. Unknown enemy probably intends to fire the missile, along with us, at a location in penguin territory. It can be assumed that the target is the penguins as no one but the squirrels would have motive to capture us, nor the resources to purchase or build the missile and titanium restraints._

_Kowalski considered these conclusions coming up with several options for escape, which he promptly whispered to private to pass on to his leader. After a few seconds Private returned with the reply. Kowalski put his plan into action._

_"Excuse me, ant-like creature," Kowalski shouted down at the crustaceans, "I don't suppose you would be able to tell me which not-so-mastermind has devised this trap from which I can escape in but a matter of seconds?" One of the lobsters looked up._

_"Wouldn't you like to know." He replied, obviously provoked by this attack at his master's scheming capability. _

_"Let me guess, he's going to either make some ridiculous demands, "paint all buildings in lunicorn colours or I'll fire this missile at your capital", or he's just going to fire the missile, in which case, he's crazy." Immediately the lobster began to march up the metal framework of stairs and platforms that surrounded the missile like a grape vine. Kowalski's plan, so far, was working. Finally the lobster reached the platform below him, that had obviously been used to attain the height necessary to attach them in their current position. _

_"He's not crazy," the lobster growled. Kowalski could see the keys dangling from the lobster's keychain. All he had to do was keep his attention long enough for him to take them without the lobster noticing._

_"Listen, gullible fool, I've fought a lot of 'I'm not mad, I'm just power hungry' self-styled geniuses in my time. They all end up in the same place. Jail." The lobster glared at him._

_"Shut up." The lobster shouted before punching Kowalski in the face, once again knocking him out. That wasn't part of Kowalski's plan._

_"What's going on in there," a high pitched voice shouted, as he drove into the room._

_"Well well well, if it isn't Dr Blowhole." Skipper greeted sarcastically as he watched his arch nemesis drive onto a platform located directly in front of his side of the missile._

_"Yes, pen-gu-in. I'll bet you never realised, when you left me in that aquarium, just how formidable foe I'd become." Blowhole replied._

_"What's the evil scheme this time? And how did you blackmail Doris into helping you?" Skipper asked._

_"Blackmail Doris? She was happy to help. Did you think for one moment she truly loved you? Anyway, my scheme is simple. I fire the missile, you and your team included, at the Red Squirrel's base. Everyone dies. Multiple revenges with one stone."_

_"Let me guess, the motive is revenge. Well, Blowhole, it would seem you've made a tiny little mistake. I happened to have swallowed an edible tracking device before I started on this mission, because of the classified nature of the material I was carrying. If I'm not back at HQ before eight o'clock tonight, my superiors will assume I've been captured and retaliate appropriately. In other words, you're going to be raided in approximately," Skipper looked at the clock on the giant monitor below him, "half an hour." Blowhole smiled deviously._

_"I don't think they will."_

_"You're bluffing."_

_"Shall we call them and find out?" Blowhole pressed button on his computer, and the screen changed to a video conferencing software, showing none other than Buck Rockgut and a full conference room full of various other senior officers. Skipper couldn't have been more surprised. Apart from the fact that Blowhole could simply contact Rockgut on a whim, which was surprising enough, the fact that he had actually called his superiors was practically asking to be arrested._

_"Rockgut what the deep fried snow cones is going on?" Skipper shouted at the image of his superior officer on the screen._

_"Cupcak…Skipper, I'm going to speak frankly. We aren't sending any reinforcements." Rockgut replied, in a voice, desperately trying to disguise just how much he like what he was saying._

_"No reinforcements?" One of the other men at the table stepped forward. Skipper recognised him as General Carson. Damn._

_"What he's trying to say is that you're an acceptable loss. Blowhole here is going to do what we can't, for diplomatic reasons," Carson told him, saying diplomatic with extra distain, "He's going to nuke those squirrels into their place. Unfortunately, he can't do that if he's been arrested, which is exactly what would have to happen if we sent reinforcements." Carson was enjoying this a bit too much. Skipper squeezed his eyes shut trying to comprehend what he had just been told. His own commanding officer, who'd been more like a father to him, just told him that they were going to let him and his team die for political reasons. _

_"That was just getting awkward," Blowhole pressed a button on the computer, ending the call, "Now, you have five minutes to live, so if you'd like to beg for mercy, now would be the time."_

* * *

_Once again Kowalski found himself awakening to a splitting headache. If he ever got out of this, he was going to kick that lobster from here to Antarctica._

_"…five minutes left to live… beg for mercy…time," Kowalski was unable to see the speaker since he was shackled to the opposite side of the missile, still, the voice was familiar. Kowalski blinked. It couldn't be?_

_"Blowhole…?" _

_"Kowalski?"_


	10. An Impossible Choice

**And it's yet another flashback chapter. Sorry, I didn't mean to take this long on backstory, but oh well… Anyway, if you want to vote for your favourite story, vote soon. I'm closing polling at the end of the week. I'd also like to thank everyone who's voted and reviewed so far. Thanks.**

"Kowalski… what are you doing here?" Blowhole stuttered. The two stared at each other. Out of all the penguin teams and maniacal dolphins out there, they had to be at odds?

"Wait, you two know each other?" Skipper asked incredulously, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Red ones, get Kowalski down from there!" Blowhole shouted. Doris made a dive for the missile launch button. Blowhole grabbed her flipper, "What are you doing? Why did you lead Kowalski into the trap? He wasn't even one of the penguins that…"

"I didn't realise Skipper would bring him," Doris feigned innocence. Blowhole had opened his mouth to dispute this, but his attention turned instead, to the penguin in front of him. Kowalski, still bound by his titanium restraints stared at Blowhole in shock and horror. He wasn't going to let politics get in the way of their friendship, he could tolerate him supporting the other side, but to actually attempt to kill him and his team was personal.

"Kowalski, I swear I didn't know it was you!" Blowhole explained, "Red ones, release him." The lobster looked at him cautiously.

"But, boss, isn't he one of them?" the confused lobster asked, glancing at the restrained bird warily. It was no secret just how dangerous the Central Park Zoo team could be in a fight.

"Red one, Kowalski isn't…"

"Blowhole…" Kowalski interrupted, staring at his captor, the dolphin he had considered, for many years, his best friend. Now he wasn't so sure, "Why are you doing this." Blowhole shut his eyes taking a deep breath, all an attempt to suppress the emotional pain that came with remembering.

"I think I told you… the reason why I'm not exactly an ally of the penguins…" That was when the truth dawned on him.

"Skipper… was the one who left you behind." Kowalski interrupted, the complex politics of the situation finally unravelling in his mind.

"Yes. He left me behind. Him and his team." Kowalski glanced up at Skipper.

"There must have been a reason. Skipper wouldn't just leave you behind as a joke." Kowalski argued desperately. Blowhole glared at the leader.

"There was a reason. Your he explained it to me himself." He answered, though Kowalski had a feeling that, somehow, this wasn't an answer he wanted to hear, "Why don't you tell him, Skipper." The penguin in question looked down from his position atop the missile, his expression betraying no remorse for his actions.

"My mission was to rescue agent Harwood from the Squirrels. Our orders were to make sure he didn't crack under torture and give up the top secret information he had been trusted with, by any means necessary. When we entered the Aquarium, Johnson recognised Blowhole from the files. I told him we had to complete our objective, but despite my orders promised the boy we would get him out. I was planning to bring him along as we left, but various long and complicated twists and turns left me with no option but to choose either Harwood or Blowhole. It was an impossible choice to make. In the end I decide to take Harwood. If I'd left him behind, he would have been tortured, far beyond what was done to Blowhole, he would have spilled his secrets, resulting in, possibly, the deaths of millions of innocents, then they would have killed him. If I left Blowhole, yes he would suffer, and I'm not heartless, it was difficult for me to allow them to treat a child that way, but not anywhere near as much as Harwood, and they certainly wouldn't kill him. Hopefully I would be able to return, to rescue him." Skipper explained grimly. Blowhole's face remained calm and emotionless, but it was clear just how much anger bubbled beneath the surface.

"You never came back, did you? You forgot about me." Blowhole replied, deadly serious.

"I didn't forget," Skipper snapped, his mask of indifference slipping, "Though you're right, I never did come back. It was always one top secret, fate of the world in your hands, mission after another," Skipper replied. It wasn't an excuse. It was the truth, and not the very pleasant explanation, "You planned my 'expendability' with my superiors to try to give me a taste of how you felt. Well you can consider it failed. I'm a soldier. If I'm expendable, it's so the war can be won." The words sounded heartfelt and patriotic, but deep down, Skipper couldn't suppress the anger he felt towards the officers that had calmly signed away his and his team's life, for politics.

"Kowalski, I never wanted to put you in this position, but you are going to have to decide between me and them, whether it's now or later." Kowalski opened his mouth to give a diplomatic reply, like _we don't have to fight, if we can agree to have you release my friends...,_ "Kowalski, the situation is that of an unstoppable force meets immovable object. Neither of us are going to compromise."

"So you want me to join you?"

"Essentially."

"If I don't, what will happen?"

"I…" Blowhole hadn't thought of that. He predicted that his friend wouldn't have any doubts as to which side he would choose.

"Then you will be considered the enemy and treated as such. I'm sure Skipper would do the same." Doris interrupted, making the decision for him.

"Doris…" Blowhole half-heartedly protested. He knew what being treated as an enemy entailed, but regardless of what he wanted, that was what would have to happen. Kowalski looked down at the floor. He didn't want his decision influenced by the sight of an old friend, or a leader he placed in the highest esteem. After a few seconds, he finally raised his head.

"I've decided," the room fell silent, "But first, I have a question… about Private and Rico. Neither of them were even recruited when Skipper left you at the aquarium. Hell, Private was still in middle school. Why can't you let them go?"

"They joined him. They face the consequences." Doris replied tersely, "Now, your answer." Once again the room fell silent in anticipation of the reply.

"I'm…I'm with the penguins," Blowhole stared at the penguin in front of him in shock, though Doris' expression betrayed a ghost of a smile, "I'm sorry Blowhole, but I would never feel right about doing what you do, for revenge. I've read the files, I didn't know they were about you, but… I couldn't live with all that killing and revenge. I'm sorry." Blowhole nodded. He knew he should be angry, furious in fact, that Kowalski had chosen the penguins over him. However, he simply felt sad. Sad that he was losing a friend. Still, as much as he didn't want to, he had to respect his friend – ex-friend's – decision and act accordingly.

"Red ones, return the traitor to the missile." Doris ordered coldly, following the lobsters and their penguin prisoner up the catwalk.

The lobsters were about to once again secure the trapped bird in the position atop the missile he had previously held, when Doris interrupted, motioning for them to drag the prisoner around to the other side of the rocket. Doris stopped, directly in front of Skipper. She leant forward, a cruel smile on her face. It was then that she kissed him, muffling an exclamation of confusion from Skipper, Kowalski suffering in silence. Doris pulled away, and Kowalski was dragged back around the weapon and once again secured to the other side. As if his day couldn't get any worse.


	11. Doris, Meet Rico and His Flamethrower

Kowalski felt like his heart had been wrenched out of his chest. It was bad enough Skipper being the 'other guy', but Doris had obviously kissed Skipper for the simple purpous of hurtung him. Kowalski blocked the thoughts from his mind. Like Doris had said herself, they were enemies. He was as soldier, assigned to take her down, and she was a criminal, who needed to be brought to justice. Still, he had managed to steal a paperclip from one of the guards. He was currently in the process of bending it into a lock pick.

"S…Stop. Bring him down." Blowhole shouted. Doris was half way down the scaffolding when she heard this.

"Little b, he's one of the enemy!" she protested.

"I don't care. Maybe, he'll change his mind."

"He made his choice." Doris continued to walk down the stairs, ignoring her brother's request.

"Red ones," Blowhole turned to a group of lobsters in lab coats doing last minute tests, "Bring him down." So much for Kowalski's plan to pick the lock. He wouldn't have time. At gunpoint his shackles were removed and replaced with more portable ones. Knowing his luck he probably wouldn't get out of those either, but Kowalski still set about trying to pick them. Fortunately for him, they were a much simpler type of lock.

"Little b, have you lost your mind!" Doris shouted running towards her brother.

"Doris, I don't know what's going on between you and Kowalski, but for pickled sea bass' sake, don't let your emotions make you do something you'll regret!"

"I think your advice is better suited to you," suddenly Doris reached out for the keyboard, hitting the launch button, "Sorry, little b, but this is for your own good." Blowhole was too stunned to speak. The lobsters stared at him, wondering what he was going to do next. Kowalski saw his opportunity.

The countdown started,; the electronic voice echoing through the cavern. Kowalski kicked the first lobster in the stomach, the other turned around, awaking from his stupor, only to be met with an elbow in the face. Blowhole did nothing, half hoping to be thwarted, anything to avoid having to fight his friend. Kowalski charged towards the control panel, knocking Doris out of the way. If there was one thing that dolphin couldn't do, it was fight. Six seconds left. A wave of lobsters charged forward. Blowhole still seemed to be able to do nothing more than stare, despite the fact he was but meters away from his enemy. Kowalski raised the gun he had taken from one of his lobster captors, firing blindly behind him as he typed franticly on the keyboard with his other wing. The first thing he did was hit the release button on the restraints. With his team released he'd have a better chance of escape. Doris dived towards him, just in time to see him cancel the countdown.

* * *

And so the fight began. Skipper and the rest of the team had, by this time, made it down the ladder, joining the fight. As soon as Blowhole saw Skipper, he returned to reality, driving towards his arch enemy, revenge gleaming in his eyes.

"Well, well, well pen-gu-in, it would seem I might get my revenge after all." Blowhole smirked. Skipper rolled his eyes.

"You're fighting a losing battle. Why don't you surrender before Rico hits something structural." He threatened, though his threats were empty. If anything, it was Skipper on the losing end, though his team specialised on still coming out victorious against worse odds. Blowhole hit a button on his Segway.

"Particle Destabilizer." The computerized voice boomed. Blowhole smiled deviously. One good shot, and Skipper's very molecules would be ripped to pieces. The only problem, was hitting him. Skipper moved like a bolt of lightning, diving between one thing and another. Inanimate objects and unfortunate lobsters alike were torn apart as Blowhole continued to try to hit the moving target. It was then that Blowhole realised that perhaps Skipper might just thwart him.

Rico growled. Doris stared at him like a cornered animal before diving behind a line of unsuspecting henchmen. Rico regurgitated a stick of dynamite. Immediately the number of crustaceans between him and her halved.

"Cowards!" Doris shouted after them, still hiding behind the remaining lobsters. It was unclear if they remained out of a kind of twisted loyalty, or if their situation was more akin to a deer faced with approaching headlights. Rico regurgitated a pat of butter, further intimidating the lobsters and thinning the ranks. He pulled the trigger, springing into action, tossing the butter at Doris, "Ow!" She screeched as it hit her in the face. Rico was beginning to regret not bringing a video camera. Kowalski would probably want to see this.

Private and Kowalski stood back to back, surrounded by lobsters. Private smacked a lobster across the face watching it stumble off dizzily as more took its place. Private then pushed another one back, creating a domino effect on the henchmen behind. Kowalski, however, was using his battle worn clipboard to somehow fence with one of the lobsters had discovered that his firearm could be used as a whacking stick. Kowalski still wondered why they hadn't thought of using them, well, to shoot. His only theory seemed to be that they were concerned about hitting one of their own. Kowalski pushed the thought to the back of his brain. It didn't really matter, all it did was make his job easier.

Blowhole realised he was doing more damage to his own ranks than to Skipper, and looked about for an alternative course of action. That was when Skipper struck. The penguin vaulted off a group of lobsters, landing on his arch nemesis' head. He wobbled for a few seconds, before sliding down onto the control panel of the Segway. He ripped out the fire button, sparks flying. Blowhole swatted at the smaller bird. Skipper dodged several times, but eventually a flipper caught across the face, sending him flying off the Segway and onto the floor, flattening another group of 'red ones'. Blowhole snatched a blaster from one of the lobsters, turning, intending to fire on Skipper, only to find him gone.

Kowalski grabbed Private's wing, swinging him in a circle, lobsters flying backwards as Private's foot connected with their face. Suddenly, one of the lobsters, who seemed to have grown a brain cell or two, led several others in a charge between him and Private, pushing him away from the younger penguin. Divide and conquer. Kowalski spun around, now being attacked on all sides. He looked about for private, who was slowly drifting away in a sea of lobsters. Kowalski began to fight his way towards his teammate, though the current was swift. Kowalski had nearly caught up with the younger bird, when Blowhole turned around, blaster in flipper, searching for Skipper. That was when he noticed Private. Blowhole levelled the gun at the penguin, who had not noticed his presence as he struggled not to be torn apart by the razor sharp claws. His fin rested on the trigger. Bang.


	12. Past the Point of No Return

_Private turned around as soon as he heard the shot echo through the cavernous space. He could feel a sticky substance on his feathers. He looked down. Blood. The red liquid dripped down his black feathers, but it wasn't his. A few meters away, Kowalski stumbled forward as blood poured from the gunshot wound. Kowalski slowly raised the wing that had been used as a poor attempt to staunch the bleeding. The wing was drenched with blood. Suddenly he was overtaken with dizziness. He dropped to his knees. He coughed, and watched in a half stupor as his blood splattered the floor. The bullet must have nicked a lung. Or worse. The world lost focus, the blood on the cement floor becoming a blur of red on grey. Finally, the brave penguin lost his battle for consciousness._

_The gun dropped from the dolphin's flipper. The battle continued to rage around him, but he didn't register it. He could hear the shot again and again in his mind. Blowhole stood there, frozen to the spot as he watched his intended target, and the two other penguins fight their way towards their fallen teammate. On their faces was an expression of pure shock. Still Blowhole couldn't muster the will to move. It was just too much for him to take in. Things had escalated so fast… The lobsters stared at their leader, unsure of what to do. Every once in a while they'd look up at their leader, who gave them no indication of what to do next. So they stood there. Everyone stood there, except the three penguins._

_Private cautiously watched dolphin standing only a few meters away as he approached the fallen penguin. The dolphin did nothing. Private reached Kowalski. Private held back the urge to vomit as he stared at the bleeding wound. He couldn't believe what had happened. That bullet was meant for him, but Kowalski had… He'd dived in front, saving the younger penguin's life at, probably, the cost of his own. Franticly Private tried wipe away the blood, though more just kept coming. The first aid training Kowalski had given him, forgotten in his panic._

_"Skippah, what do we…?" Private choked. Skipper stared at the wound. _

_"Kowalski was the medic." The three penguins stared at the fallen bird. Kowalski had run them through basic first aid, but they'd never really paid attention. They'd never realised just how important that information would be, "Rico… first aid kit." The penguin regurgitated the desired object. All they could do was try with what little they remembered._

_Precious minutes had gone by, and things only seemed to get worse. Kowalski had grown pale, and barely moved. It didn't take a knowledge of medicine to know, he probably wasn't going to make it unless they stopped the bleeding. _

_"Wake up soldier!" Skipper shouted in desperation, "Don't you dare die on me, soldier... That's an order." He was watching his friend die, and there was nothing he could do to save him. Skipper felt himself pushed aside. He looked up to see his arch nemesis applying compression to his fallen lieutenant's wound, "Blowhole! What are you…?" The dolphin didn't look up from his work._

_"I'm a doctor."_

* * *

_"That should stabilise him until you can get him to a hospital," Blowhole stated, getting back up onto his Segway, "I'm calling a truce until he gets better." Skipper stared at his opponent, puzzled._

_"Thank you." Skipper said. The dolphin turned around._

_"This doesn't change anything. I'm calling a truce until he improves." The dolphin began to drive away. Skipper stood there, watching him. _

_"Why?" Skipper asked. The dolphin turned around._

_ "Go before I change my mind." _

* * *

_"Breaking news," the news reader announced, looking up from the pile of papers at his desk, "Two weeks ago, Philadelphia's skyline was lit up when an entire block of suburban houses spontaneously exploded, killing fifteen people. However, investigators have now discovered that the explosion was caused by the collapse of a gigantic underground cellar. Over to you, Becky." The screen cut to the very same row of houses Blowhole's base had previously been located under, though now in ruins, several collapsed into what looked like a giant pit. Fire fighters, medics and police officers could be seen amongst the ruins. A female reporter, Becky, stood just in front of a barrier of yellow tape._

_"Thanks Chuck," the reporter began, "I'm live at Cherrywood drive as investigators continue to uncover more bizarre evidence concerning the cause of this explosion. So far, it has been discovered that the bunker like underground cellar, stretching down several hundred meters below the surface was vacated at least a month before the explosion… Wait a minute…" The reporter was handed a piece of paper by one of the camera operators, "Investigators have discovered the remains of a… this can't be right… a nuclear missile, it's warhead and fuel missing…" _

_Skipper changed the channel. On the screen was a smartly dressed penguin wearing a tie, seated at a similar table to the human channel._

_"…Government sources indicate that this may have been one of the many hideouts of the infamous Dr Blowhole. The explosion was caused when chemicals in the long since abandoned lab leaked. However, neither Blowhole, or any of his minions were killed in the explosion," the penguin reported, "In other news, owner of the arms firm, Blake Grant was killed in a skiing accident when the gondola he was riding detached from the cable, and the billionaire was dropped two thousand wings. His widow, Doris Grant, whom he married two years ago, stands to inherit over…" Skipper's fist slammed into the remote. The TV switched off. He sat there, staring at the wall. She'd planned it all from the start._

_"I guess she's not your wife." Skipper spun around. Kowalski was standing behind him, eyeing the broken remote, probably wondering what kind of crazy invention he could make out of it. Over the last month he'd recovered substantially. _

_"Like hell she was. I guess she only dated me we could be seen about town together, to give her story credibility. She could have forged the papers easily." Skipper replied angrily. Kowalski sat down beside him at the cement table._

_"I wonder what she wanted from me?"_

_"Probably information, after she worked out she wouldn't get anything out of me." Skipper stared at the table. The room fell silent for several minutes. Skipper shook his head sadly, "Just once can I date someone who's not either trying to kill me, or after my money? I can only blame myself for being so damn naïve."_

_"And you criticize Private. Well, I guess there's no use you trying to get the money back."_

_"Yeah, by the time I prove I'm not dead, and that she's not my wife, It'd already be gone," skipper sighed, "I might as well just stay dead. It'll do wonders for my cover."_

_Blowhole stared out the window of the plane. Below him, stretched a sea of fluffy white clouds. Kowalski had always loved the view out the window of a plane. They'd discussed it during one of the times they'd met for coffee. A single tear welled in his eye. According to Agent 12, he'd recovered, at least, physically. What had he done to his friend? Blowhole pulled down the shutter, blocking out the view. He'd passed the point of no return. There was nothing he could do or say, that would mend things between them. He wasn't going to deny that it was his fault. Him and his revenges. Blowhole sighed. It was too late for him. His heart was already consumed with revenge, but then, that was all he had left now._

_"If only I'd 'celebrated'," Blowhole muttered. Fate was cruel. Skipper's end would be crueller._

**Kowalski hasn't been particularly lucky when it comes to injury's (Sorry Kowalski). Anyway, that's pretty much it for the flashbacks. Next chapter I'm back to the plot.**


	13. Better Luck Next Time

Doris placed a glowing yellow object in the bottom of her suitcase, wrapped in a couple of old dresses. Blowhole had had her room searched, but found nothing. Several weeks passed, but there was still a shadow of doubt hanging over her. In the end the siblings had agreed that it was better for her to leave. She was almost done packing when she noticed Kowalski's reflection in the suitcase's metal handle. The penguin was leaning against the door frame of the now open door, smirking. He was seemingly relaxed, though Doris knew he was alert and ready to stop her if she made any move to escape.

"So you really were working behind your brother's back." Kowalski motioned to the yellow power cells still glowing faintly through the layers of clothing, "I suppose you stole those while you were 'checking your email'" Doris turned around, seemingly unfazed by the fact she had obviously been caught red handed.

"No, Kowalski, you stole them," she replied calmly, hiding a slight smile. Kowalski studied her a few seconds. She seemed too calm for someone who'd practically admitted their guilt. Still, he had no choice but to play along.

"Really, Doris, you're leaving because you can't be trusted. Don't you think blaming me again is a bit farfetched?"

"Maybe I'll have better luck on my second attempt." Kowalski slumped as a hard object hit him in the back of the head.

Kowalski awoke to find himself in the hangar, with a splitting headache, facing a stack of ten power cells, a Maguffium 239 detonator attached. He looked around: he was alone. Kowalski picked himself up from the floor, and dragged himself towards the objects. The detonator was a metal box, about two feet cubed, containing a timing mechanism and enough Maguffium to react with the power cells. Now, how had he shown Rockgut how to diffuse a Maguffium bomb, back when he was a kid? He honestly couldn't remember, though he hoped that once he got a look at the wires he might be able to work it out. He grabbed the box, first checking if whoever set this up, probably Doris, had been stupid enough to leave the device unlocked. Amazingly, it would seem she had. Immediately Kowalski hit the Stop button, and the countdown froze. Still, Doris was too smart to make mistakes like that, and too much of a control freak to let anyone else (ironically, that was one of the things Kowalski liked about her). Despite his relief at not being blown to pieces, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was too easy.

"Don't move!" Kowalski heard someone behind him shout, "Kowalski?" The penguin turned around. Behind him was Blowhole, Doris and ten other lobsters. Kowalski stood up.

"Blowhole, somebody…"

"Stop him before he hits the immediate detonation button!" Doris shouted. Immediately six of the ten lobsters pounced on him and he found himself bound wing and foot in seaweed. Before he could protest, a strip of kelp tied around his beak, holding it shut.

Kowalski struggled against the seaweed that bound his wings and feet. Beside him Doris smiled triumphantly. Maybe there was something special about second attempts.

"Kowalski… how could you?" Blowhole's expression betrayed pure disappointment, "I don't want to believe it, I never wanted to believe it, but I saw you setting the fuse with my own eyes."

"Mmm ammm mummm." Kowalski objected through kelp. He probably meant to say something along the lines of: _You idiot, it was a set up. I was trying to disarm it!_

"…then I found the papers in your room. I really thought we were friends again. I know I did…inexcusable things… in Philadelphia, but I thought…" Blowhole couldn't finish his sentence.

"Um, what should we do with him, boss?" one of the lobsters asked.

"Lock him up. I'll deal with him tomorrow." Blowhole replied. Doris and several other guards led him towards the detention area.

"Alright Doris, you've exposed me as a spy. Well, as soon as you leave, which would be tomorrow, he's going to hear the whole story. Blowhole might not believe me at first, but when those power cells miraculously disappear the very day you leave, questions will be asked." Kowalski argued. He was currently tied to a chair in one of the concrete cells, his beak now free; they didn't trust the locks would be able to hold him. Doris paced the room in front of him.

"You won't be telling him anything." She replied.

"Well sooner or later he's going to take that infernal gag off and hear the truth." Kowalski replied angrily.

"Not if you meet with an accident."

"Don't be ridiculous. It'll just make you look guiltier. Anyway, there's still the matter of the power cells."

"That's right, there is. Now supposing you, an enemy agent, desperate to destroy this base, managed to hide two of the power cells on your person, before you were captured. However, when you fell off your chair in an attempt to escape," Doris drove over to the penguin, pushing his chair over, "you accidentally started the countdown when you landed on the button," Doris held two power cells, attached a timer in front of his face, "Now, considering the fact that I did not remove the gag," Doris retied the piece of kelp over his beak, "You were unable to scream for help. I think you can guess what happens next." Doris started the countdown and placed the bomb directly in front of him, so he could watch the seconds tick down. He had three minutes, "Say hi to Manfridi and Johnson for Skipper when you see them."


	14. T Minus Three Minutes

**"Two minutes, thirty seconds to detonation…" Doris' timer announced. She smiled, then entered the scheming centre.**

Kowalski watched the numbers on the timer slowly decrease. He tried screaming for help but, like Doris said, not even the guard on the other side of the door could hear him. He tried looking for sharp objects about the room, to cut the seaweed, but didn't see any of those either. This wasn't exactly the kind of situation he had predicted in his manual of possible scenarios. Come to think of it, there was a lot of useful stuff he hadn't thought about.

"Little B," Doris walked across the scheming room towards her brother, "I've decided to leave tonight."

"Why?" He asked, though his mind wasn't really on his sister. He couldn't stop thinking about Kowalski and the Maguffium bomb. Was there anyone he could trust these days?

"There's really no reason to stay." She replied. Her brother nodded.

"You have a point. Well, I hope you like wherever you're going, and well… if you need any help, too many points on your licence and stuff like that, just give me a call." He replied, pulling his sister into a hug.

"I know this is a bit of a difficult time for you, Kowalski not… well you get what I mean. I think it'll be easier for you if I wasn't here." Blowhole nodded reluctantly, "Bye little B. Best of luck with destroying the penguins." Doris left the room.

"Oh mackerel don't remind me of that." Blowhole muttered. He began to pace the room, somehow hoping it would relieve the stress. Not even Doris could understand just how happy he'd been when Kowalski had returned. All those years of battling him had been the hardest thing he'd ever done.

_Mort flew across the room towards the control panel. Blowhole saw his chance. He had the remote in his flipper, just in case Mort missed the button. Nobody would know he had secretly anticipated Mort's entrance and set things up so it was probable for him to land on the release button. All he had to do know was act surprised or annoyed when it happened. The mammal hit the control panel, surprisingly uninjured despite the force of the hit. _

_"Damn, forgot to carry the two." Blowhole thought. The lemur had hit the button to the right of the release button. Still he had the master remote. He hit the button himself, and the penguins sprang into action. "Oh well, foiled again." He thought happily._

Maybe Kowalski wasn't up to something? Maybe Kowalski was out for revenge against him for what happened in Philadelphia? Maybe the penguins had some kind of control over him, other than misguided loyalty, that made him betray him? Blowhole realised he may have been a bit too hasty branding Kowalski a traitor. He was going to talk to him and find out the truth.

**"… One minute to detonation…"**

Kowalski calculated the range of the blast. Though the bomb wasn't very big it would easily take out the whole building and at least five blocks around it. He considered trying to break the seaweed by rubbing them against the cement walls, but that would take two years, 47 days, 2 hours and 23 seconds to cut through to the point at which he could break them. Not a viable option. 40 seconds left.

Blowhole stood outside the door to the detention block. Through the door's barred window he could see one of the red ones sitting in a chair facing the door, looking at pictures in a magazine. Behind the lobster was another door. Through that door was Kowalski. All he had to do was knock, the red one would open the door and let him into Kowalski's cell. It was simple enough, so why couldn't he bring himself to knock?

**"… Thirty seconds to detonation…"**

Blowhole raised his flipper to knock, but at the last minute changed his mind. The flipper returned to his side. He couldn't do it. He slapped himself, it seemed to help Kowalski, and well, it worked for him too. He couldn't chicken out now.

Kowalski was starting to get desperate. He had to think of something. Maybe Doris had made a mistake, or accidentally dropped something when she left. Kowalski started to go over Doris' movements since she first entered the cell. She had to have made some kind of mistake!

**"…Twenty seconds until detonation…"**

Blowhole raised the flipper again and almost managed to knock, but once again lost his nerve. The fear that Kowalski may have actually betrayed him was more terrifying than being locked in the lab with an angry chrome claw, and that was pretty scary.

**"…Ten seconds until detonation…"**

Blowhole turned away from the door and drove down the passage towards the scheming centre. He couldn't do it.

_First Doris entered the cell, using her left flipper to push the door open. The red one locked the door behind her. She paced the room, holding the piece of kelp and Maguffium bomb behind her back. She stopped, drove forward approximately two feet three inches, and then pushed chair over…_ Kowalski smiled. That was it.

**"… Five seconds until detonation…"**

Kowalski shuffled forward towards the bomb until his head was directly over it. Doris had set it up so it would look like he had activated the bomb by falling on it. Once again she had left the lock off, as it was possible to determine from the wreckage if the detonator was locked or not. It wouldn't fit with the story that Kowalski had started the countdown by falling on the bomb if it was passcode locked.

**"…One second until detonation…"**

Kowalski banged his head against the device, hitting the button. If he could activate it by falling on it, he could deactivate it the same way.

**"… One second since detonation..."**

Kowalski sighed with relief, or did the best he could to. Still, he wasn't out of the woods yet. At least the immediate threat of being blown to pieces was passed. Now he could think about escape.


	15. Escape!

The lobster charged with guarding the prisoner opened the door to the cell, cautiously. On the floor, in the centre of the room, the penguin was still tied to the chair, though it had over turned. The penguin appeared to be asleep.

"Wake up!" the lobster ordered. The penguin remained motionless. The lobster approached slowly, just in case it was some kind of trap, "Come on, wake up!" The penguin still did nothing. The lobster moved closer still. Kowalski let out a low moan, followed by a hacking cough. The penguin's body contorted as much was possible tied to a chair, and his breathing was irregular. That wasn't good. The lobster leant forward, to check the penguin's pulse. If Kowalski got sick, and/or died, on his watch, he really didn't want to know what Blowhole would do to him.

Suddenly, Kowalski's eyes snapped open, a victorious smile on his face. Faster than the lobster could react, Kowalski head-butted him in the face. The stunned lobster stumbled a few steps backward. Kowalski threw his weight to the side, flipping himself and the chair so it landed on the lobster, crushing him. Kowalski turned back over, eyeing the lobster's sharp claws. He now had a sharp object to cut the seaweed, an unlocked cell door, and no alarm. Mission successful.

Escaping the lair before the guard changed and his absence was discovered, was no challenge. Blowhole had forgotten to change the security codes after he was exposed, so he could simply walk out. He'd even set the whole place on lockdown and changed the codes, just to buy himself a few hours of extra time. Getting from the lair to one of Skipper's safe houses wasn't difficult either. Neither was deducing what Doris was up to, once he had an internet connection.

Before Doris had left, she'd overwritten the data on her laptop, then degaussed and finally smashed the hard drive, just for good measure. In other words, there was no point even trying to recover the data. Blowhole's files hadn't been much more helpful. All he knew now, was that Doris was acting entirely independently of her brother, and that Blowhole's 'secret plan' had been to fire a Maguffium missile at the penguins to simply eradicate them. So much for a brilliant scheme, but then sometimes simplicity was the better strategy. Kowalski certainly hadn't anticipated it. Blowhole's computers had also furnished him with a complete inventory of everything Doris had taken, which was much more useful.

It was obvious what she planned to do; she'd stolen Blowhole's Maguffium warhead, and fifteen tons of Maguffium, P164 (a water soluble extremely lethal poison that specifically targets penguins), as well as the activation codes for the Ring of Fire, which was surprisingly still in place. She planned to supercharge the ring of fire with the Maguffium-power cell reaction, thus the ice caps would melt, killing the squirrels who couldn't swim, and the humans as all the plants and animals that provided food would be drowned and the water contaminated. The P164, would kill off the penguins. Unlike her brother, Doris was not only after revenge against the penguins, but the Squirrels, who had captured and tortured her brother, the penguins for not saving him, Kowalski for supposedly cheating on her with the Blue Hen, the humans, for allowing the Aquarium to remain open; she didn't care how many innocent people ended up in the collateral damage category.

The challenge was to find out where she was. Blowhole owned so many safe houses and abandoned lairs, not to mention all Grant Inc. properties, he couldn't possible keep track of them all. Doris could be using any of them. Still, there was one lead he could trace…

Kowalski nearly jumped out of his feathers when the door crashed down. Damn, he shouldn't have stayed at that one safe house for so long, but he'd needed to use the computer to decrypt the data. He should have known Blowhole would track him down, he should have left a couple of red herrings, changed safe houses every couple of hours, bounced his signal off multiple satellites, or at least gotten in touch with Skipper. Kowalski was on his feet within seconds, jumped out the window and climbed up the fire escape. Hopefully he could escape across the rooftops; Blowhole undoubtedly had all the other exits covered.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Kowalski's mind returned to the subject he had been debating almost all day. He knew he had to contact Skipper, his cover was blown, and he desperately needed back up if he was going to go after Doris, yet he couldn't bring himself to pick up the phone. Kowalski couldn't help but try to hang on the hope, that Doris wasn't really evil. That somehow, she still loved him. If he called in skipper, there was a decent chance Doris would be sent to jail, or killed if she tried to escape.

Kowalski had made the jump to the rooftop on the building opposite the safe house, but he could already hear the clicking of thousands of pincers, as they raced up the stairs of the opposite building, after him. Kowalski climbed into one of the windows in the other building. Hopefully he could get down to ground level, then from there, into the sewers. There he would have the advantage over Blowhole, who didn't know his way around as well. Clickclickclickclickclick… Kowalski turned around.

"Don't move!"


	16. Heroes and Villains

"Blowhole!?" Kowalski spun around at the sound of the familiar voice, "She set me up. I kept trying to…"

"Don't." Blowhole lowered his gaze slightly, but soon corrected his show of weakness, "Don't. Just… don't try that anymore. We aren't friends."

"Blowhole!" Kowalski's face showed absolute shock. Yes, he'd spied on him, but he'd always thought of the misguided dolphin as a friend; the only person who really understood him.

"Don't try and use our previous friendship, to influence my decisions. It won't work," Blowhole drove towards the door, and motioned for Kowalski to follow. Kowalski considered running, but Blowhole's Segway probably held enough deadly weapons to blast him into the next century. The dolphin didn't need to expressly threaten force; Kowalski had seen the blueprints, "I trusted you… I know what I did in Philadelphia was… inexcusable, but you outright deceived me!"

"Two minutes." Blowhole turned around. Two minutes, was a system they'd created back at school. If one of them called 'two minutes' the two would sit down for two minutes, and during those two minutes, had to tell the truth. They could remain silent, but everything said had to be true, and that didn't include misleading truths.

"I…"

"You aren't allowed to turn down the two minutes."

"No attacks?"

"Have you forgotten the rules of the two minutes?" Blowhole considered this.

"Alright," The dolphin pressed a button on his transport, and a holographic timer appeared in front of him, "Your two minutes starts now."

"Yes, I was sent here as a spy. Our intelligence told us your 'secret plan' would destroy the entire zoo. I didn't want to use what was left of our friendship to spy on you, but I couldn't let so many friends die," Kowalski explained, "Doris… I thought she'd changed. She hasn't. When I told you she was only pretending to check her email, I was just making it up. Turns out, she was actually…"

The cornered penguin recounted the entire story. His two minutes had long since passed, but Blowhole never said anything. Kowalski wouldn't lie during the extended two minutes, and he wanted to hear the truth "…Her plan, well, she's going to kill everyone: penguins, humans, squirrels. I have to stop her…" Kowalski concluded.

"She's my sister." Blowhole objected.

"And I'm still madly in love with her." The room fell silent, except for the clicking of the lobster's feet as they circled the perimeter.

"One last team up?"

"We're united against the same goal."

"Well, any idea's on where she went?"

"I was going to ask you."

The two scientists turned the empty apartment into a makeshift war room. Maps, plans, and lists of properties Doris would have access to covered the floor, walls, and occasionally, ceiling.

"She'd have to be at the North Pole, right? To rig the Maguffium." Kowalski reasoned.

"No, she'd only send henchmen. She'd have known we'd work that out." Blowhole replied.

"She could be anywhere!" Kowalski threw up his wings in despair. The two paced the room, deep in thought.

"Um, Dr Blowhole?" One of the lobsters poked their head into the room, "The…"

"That's it!" Blowhole exclaimed, "Extra… whatever it is you eat, for you red one!"

"You know where she is?" Kowalski asked incredulously.

"Remember I said she'd send her henchmen?" Blowhole drove out of the room, Kowalski following a few feet behind, as he struggled to catch up with the ecstatic dolphin, "Well, we know where to find her henchmen, and her henchmen know where to find her!"

* * *

"Professor March, I can make this extremely painful, or I can let you live," Blowhole demanded, his voice betraying his frustration, "Now, tell us where my sister is." The penguin, clad in what was left of a furry parka (he was a tropical penguin) turned up his beak defiantly. Professor March, a well-known penguin professor had disappeared from his office two months ago. Several months before this, colleagues and students had already reported that the professor had been acting strangely.

"I will say nothing," The professor Doris had used to reactivate the Ring of Fire replied. Blowhole had to say he was somewhat impressed the penguin was still conscious, "She told me you would try such methods. No, you will get nothing out of me!" Kowalski walked into the small hut, his feathers speckled with snow.

"Let me try." Kowalski offered. Kowalski stepped back out of the hut, Blowhole following. He didn't want their only lead to know they weren't quite as confident as they liked to pretend.

"I've tried everything, but he just won't talk. The red ones have been all over the complex, and we can't find any kind of control station," Blowhole replied, obviously frustrated, "I can only assume that Doris has it radio controlled. She never could trust anyone, after she saw you and that hen."

"I did what I did out of duty. I needed to distract the Blue Hen long enough to switch the food bowls. Now, may I have a turn?"

"Knock yourself out."

Fifteen minutes later Kowalski emerged from the hut.

"You were right, its radio controlled, and all the wires and mechanics are all several feet under the ice. It would take us months to drill down to them." Kowalski announced.

"So we can't shut it down here. Did he tell you where Doris is?" Blowhole asked.

"You'll never believe this, but she's in New York."

"What?"

"I know. She's holed up in an apartment block, across from the zoo. I guess she wanted to see my team… the zoo's demise in person." Kowalski and his villainous companion trudged back to the plane.

"How'd you break him?" Blowhole asked.

"You don't want to know." Kowalski replied, his face betraying no expression. The two settled comfortably into the jet's luxurious cabin.

* * *

Blowhole stared out the window, for the first time, since Philadelphia, feeling justified in doing so. Seemingly spontaneously, he turned to Kowalski, a peculiar expression on his face.

"Why don't you join me?" Blowhole asked, "For real, I mean." For a few seconds, Kowalski was completely stunned.

"No."

"Why?" Blowhole asked. The penguin hesitated, "I want the honest truth, Kowalski."

"Are you sure?" Blowhole nodded, "The truth is, from a business perspective, I think you're completely driven by revenge, not caring who you have to hurt to get it. I could never be like that."

"But you already are," Kowalski looked completely outraged, "You and your team well, your collateral damage record isn't exactly stellar; in fact, I believe it was skipper's actions in Denmark that started the war," Blowhole argued, "You said I don't care who I hurt. Well, so do you. Take the pilot, the one you set up, so you could sabotage the plane without attracting suspicion. You had no grudge against him, yet you signed his life away, in order to infiltrate me."

"I think I was justified in sacrificing a lobster to save an entire zoo."

"What about the human you claimed stabbed you?"

"I was unconscious…"

"You knew what I would do. You may also remember the fact you never insisted that I send reinforcements, so those lobsters guarding the door during your team's 'attack' died. What about March? You didn't see any problem with torturing and killing him. What about the lobster you crushed to death during your escape? You only needed his pincer; you could have just knocked him out."

"I couldn't let him sound the alarm," Kowalski replied defensively. What if Blowhole was right? Was he was just as bad as him? No. He was on the right side. He was penguin officer, "Alright. I did the wrong things, but for the right reasons." Blowhole seemed to sense his internal conflict. Kowalski's argument was flimsy, rushed. Easy to counter.

"Really, Kowalski? Good, bad? Hero, villain? It all depends on your perspective. You think you're on the good side. I'm sure the Squirrels think they're the heroes and you're the villains. They probably justify what they did to me, the same way you justified what you did to March."

"I don't know how you see things, but I know I'm not the villain. I don't torture children," Kowalski replied, "I think that settle my case: the penguins are the heroes."

"No, that just proves that the Squirrels are the villains, not that I am," Blowhole countered. Kowalski, who was turning crimson, was about to come up with another argument when Blowhole interrupted, "I can see this is becoming a bit heated. Well, my offer stays open. Think it over."


	17. Frequency

**A friend gave me a chalange to fit in as many clichés as possible. They aren't hard to spot, but I had a lot of fun writing this.**

"Right, so... do we knock?" Kowalski asked. The two were surveying the building Doris was using from a building across the street.

"Very funny."

"I was serious," Blowhole looked at him like he'd lost his mind, "I mean, it's not like they'd recognise me. No offence, but lobsters aren't known for their intelligence."

"For your information, I worked hard to train those lobsters to recognise enemy patterns. Anyway, Doris would probably secure a secondary security system. An electronic one."

"What makes you say that?"

"I do."

"So that's why you kept catching us, even when we take out the lobsters..."

"Yeah, so what about the rest of the building?"

"I've done a complete survey, there's no way in, well, except the front door. I even considered using a jetpack and crash through the window, but she's installed vibration monitors. If I so much as touched them..."

"Alarms would go off and you'd find yourself tied to another Maguffium bomb."

"I don't suppose we could jam the frequency the Ring of Fire's detonator is set to?"

"Doris probably has everything but the TV protected. Well, the only other option we have is to make them let us in. Impersonation?"

"That's probably the best method," Kowalski thought for a moment, "There's that scientist at back at the North Pole…"

"What if he wakes up and alerts Doris?" Kowalski looked down at his feet, "Wait, you killed him? Are you sure you don't want to reconsider..."

"Stay focused. I suppose I'm about the right height and build. I can go in, then deactivate..."

"Do you know how to deactivate the Ring of Fire?"

"Um... No. I don't suppose you could tell me?"

"It's still a functioning weapon. You're a spy, remember."

"Everyone's going to die, and you're concerned about that?"

"It's not like I'm going to die. I can always put you in a waterproof cage for the rest of your life. The toxin is water based," Blowhole stared out the window, deep in thought, "Well, they'd definitely recognise me, and you can't disarm it alone. Do you have any other ideas?" Kowalski opened his beak to speak, but shut it again, "I'm guessing you have an idea, but its complete ridiculous."

* * *

The twelve reserve lobsters sat in the guard room, watching the TV, until the signal suddenly cut off.

"That crazy dolphin's messing with the frequencies again." One of the lobsters muttered, "Probably be back in in two minutes." However, half an hour passed, and the TV, was still off. The lobsters had tried everything, called every team in the building, but none admitted having anything to do with the malfunctioning television.

"I can't take it anymore," One of the lobsters stood up from his seat, sick of staring at the TV. As a reserve lobster, they could be there for hours, if nothing happened, which, compared to Blowhole's lair, was surprisingly infrequent, "I'm callin' a repair man."

"Didn't Doris say...?"

"How can a repair man be a security liability?"

* * *

"Just wait here while I get your security pass," The lobster left the room; though Kowalski knew he was undoubtedly still being watched. Blowhole's remark about the TV being the only un-jammable signal had given him the idea, that and an old movie. Blowhole was hidden in the giant- toolbox-on wheels, and far. It was an unusual thing for a TV repairman to insist on taking with him, nobody had asked about that so far.

"I don't suppose you know how much longer I'll be in here?" Blowhole whispered, "It's getting stuffy."

"Shut up, he's coming back." Kowalski hissed just as the guard returned.

"Alright, I'll take you to the..." The guard's radio crackled to life, "Yeah, sorry," Kowalski smiled, holding a modified radio behind his back. Blowhole had reprogrammed his radio - he'd assumed Doris hadn't changed the frequency - to send out a pre-recorded alert message to any radios within a few meters, "Somebody's flooded the reactor on level three, again. I'll tell you how to get to the guard room: you go straight down the hall; it's the door at the end. You can't miss it."

* * *

Kowalski picked the lock on the door to the first lab, dragging the giant-tool-box-on-wheels behind him. As soon as he'd shut the door behind him, Blowhole pushed the false top off the tool box and wriggled his way out.

"You certainly took your time letting me out." He grumbled as Kowalski removed the giant tool box from the wheels, and connected the miniature (and dangerously close to the prototype stage) engine, then helped Blowhole on to this makeshift Segway.

"Is that another revenge?" Kowalski asked jokingly.

"It's not like you're perfect. So, we search for the control room..." Blowhole froze when the door opened, revealing a dolphin in gigantic safety goggles and a stained lab coat.

"What are you two doing in here?" The man reached over and switched on the lights, "Hm, you two look familiar..."

"We take him on three," Blowhole whispered, eyeing the intruder alarm only a few feet from the newcomer.

"... Of course, you're the new technicians," Both Kowalski and Blowhole silently breathed a sigh of relief, "You two are supposed to be up at Ring of Fire control, overseeing the detonation. If Doris comes back and finds you two..."

* * *

"Now, you activate the count down by…" the guide pressed a few buttons on the ring of fire control panel, "Hm… no, that's not right…"

"You've got to be kidding me," Blowhole whispered, "I built this."

"Do you want to tell him that?" Kowalski asked sarcastically, "anyway, you stole most of the thermo generators from me."

"Um, Dr Howard, thank you for showing us how to work this. I think we know the rest." Blowhole tried to disguise the annoyance evident in his voice.

"You only arrived a few minutes ago." The scientist protested.

"Well, we've had some experience with the Ring of Fire," Kowalski answered.

"Yes, we worked for Dr Blowhole before we came here." Blowhole added.

"You worked for Blowhole?" the scientist asked incredulously, "tell me, is he as brilliant as his papers on reactive substances?"

"It's Doctor Blowhole, by the way. Absolutely, and more so…" Blowhole boasted.

"Thank you, Dr." Kowalski cut in, before he burst out laughing, "We can take it from here."

"Alright." Dr Howard walked out of the room. Immediately, Blowhole took control of the computer.

"Don't look at my password!" Blowhole objected.

"Fine." Kowalski turned around as Blowhole typed in the password to unlock the Ring of Fire controls. They'd emptied the building after Blowhole had accessed the central security system from one of the computers in the Ring of Fire control centre. The building had emptied almost instantly.

"Ring of Fire: Disarmed..." the computerized voice announced over the steady clicking of Blowhole's flippers on the keyboard, "Shutting down... Shutting down... Ring of Fire: Deactivated." Kowalski watched the live footage showing the glowing orange towers descend back into the ice, "Contingency Plan Spare Maguffium Missile: Armed. Target: Central Park Zoo." Kowalski couldn't believe his ear holes.

"Blowhole, what are you...?!"

"I'm sorry Kowalski, but Skipper has to pay."


	18. You Tricked Me!

"Please, Blowhole, don't do it!" Kowalski begged. He really didn't want to have to take down his friend, and hoped, though it was unlikely, that Blowhole would stop the countdown without even the threat of brute force, "I don't want to have to fight you."

"I'm guessing that's a formal 'no' to my offer." Blowhole replied bitterly.

"I think I've made up my mind on who are the heroes and who are the villains." Kowalski answered in a similar tone. Blowhole, after all that, was going to destroy an entire zoo, just to get four penguins.

"You don't understand what I go through every day, knowing my life's only as messed up as it is because of one penguin," Blowhole replied angrily, "I recommend you don't try to stop me."

At this point, Blowhole obviously wasn't going to listen to reason, though on some level, Kowalski understood his thirst for revenge. Suddenly, though not unexpectedly, Kowalski made a dive for the computer, intending to shut down the countdown before it reached T minus 8*.

"Flipper print: not recognised... Detaining imposter." Metal restraints snapped out of the keyboard, grabbing Kowalski's wings and feet, almost as if they had a mind of their own. Despite his struggles, the penguin was quickly over powered, "...Contingency Plan Spare Maguffium Missile: Armed. Target: Central Park Zoo... Contingency Plan Spare Maguffium Missile: Armed. Target: Central Park Zoo... Contingency Plan Spare Maguffium Missile: Armed. Target: Central Park Zoo." The pre-recorded announcement repeated, until Blowhole switched it off.

"You tricked me!" Kowalski shouted, more at himself than his captor.

"This wasn't how I wanted this to end, Kowalski," The look in the dolphin's eyes told Kowalski Blowhole was sincere, "This was the only way to capture you where you'd be least likely to get hurt." It was then Kowalski realised what that nagging feeling in his gut had been. Why was it he never listened to his gut?!

"There is no missile."

"If there was, I'd have already fired it. No, I just assumed that you wouldn't have time to remember that Doris had actually dismantled my warhead to boost the Ring of Fire," Blowhole tried his best to keep his tone indifferent, though it was hard to remember how pretend not to care when you didn't actually hate the penguin, "You're so easy to predict, Kowalski. I just think of what I would do in your position."

"I guess there are some disadvantages to you being the one person who understands me." Blowhole winced slightly, though this did not go unnoticed by Kowalski, "So now the usual pattern repeats. I escape, then by some bizarre twist of fate... Wait..."

"There isn't going to be a 'bizarre twist of fate', if that answers your query."

"So what are you going to do now?" Kowalski asked bitterly, was still beating himself up over being caught, "Kill me?"

"Kowalski..." the penguin could see just how much his words hurt the aquatic mammal, but didn't really care, "I'm going to use you to lure Skipper here." Blowhole turned away from his captive. He couldn't bear to see his friend's betrayed expression, that he knew resulted from his actions.

"Blowhole, I'd like to reconsider... your offer." Blowhole turned around, a glimmer of hope in his eyes, "Skipper… well, I guess I have almost as much a reason to hate him as you do. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have died that day in Philadelphia. All of us would have, and yet he makes it his life's mission to hunt you down."

"You mean it?"

"I only wish I'd seen it sooner." Kowalski watched his face solid granite as Blowhole typed in a command, the robotic arms automatically releasing him, "I really didn't want to do this." Kowalski whispered, before executing a powerful kick, knocking the dolphin out instantly.

Kowalski had realised what he was going eventually to have to do. He couldn't stand by and watch Blowhole lure Private and to their deaths, nor did he want to deceive his friend, despite the fact he'd been deceived first. Kowalski knew he couldn't simply let Blowhole go, after escaping, as he'd only attack his team again, and again. Neither of them would always be able to protect the other during the conflict. He had the chance to stop him now: if their situations were reversed he knew Blowhole would do – in fact, did – the same. Kowalski knew that sooner or later, he'd have to make that decision, his only choice was if he wanted to make it before or after his team was dead.

* * *

"Excellent work, Kowalski," Skipper complemented, as three penguin police officers led the dolphin towards an armoured van, "You managed to not only to prevent the 'secret plan' from being activated, but thwarted an attempt to kill off all penguin life…"

"And human non-swimmers," Private added, purposely leaving out the squirrels.

"… but you also managed to capture Blowhole himself."

"He isn't the threat, Skipper," Kowalski protested, "I keep telling you: its Doris you should be worried about."

"Kowalski, Blowhole is Penguin enemy no.3. Doris, I think she's 1078th or something," Skipper continued, obviously considering Doris' case closed, "For your incredible accomplishment, not to mention bravery, I wouldn't be surprised if you receive the… Kowalski?" Kowalski was no longer standing next to him, "Kowalski?"

Kowalski ran up to the prisoner, who was being loaded into the van, "Last minute questions, officers. All classified." The three guards stepped out of earshot, but kept their eyes on their prisoner.

"Oh, hello Kowalski," Blowhole tried ignore the feeling of betrayal that had hit him like a tidal wave the moment he woke up. He knew he had no right to feel disappointed at his friend's deception. After all, Kowalski had warned him many times that he was a spy, and that his first duty was to the penguins, "I don't hold anything against you. I did double cross you first."

"You're going to Hoboken, how can I not feel guilty about that!" Blowhole's attempt to hide the waver in his voice had not been lost on Kowalski, who, despite the fact he knew he acted only out of duty, still wondered how he was going to live with that decision.

"Please don't remind me of that," Blowhole winced, "I've never been to prison before."

"Are you scared?"

"Of course not," Blowhole replied indignantly. This was an old joke between the two of them, Blowhole never liked to admit how he felt, especially fear. Kowalski always used to tease him about that, especially if he tried to back out of something with an incredibly unlikely excuse, though that had all changed when he came back from The Aquarium. Blowhole smiled at the poor attempt at a joke, appreciating the gesture; it really was the only thing Kowalski could do to help.

"Here," Blowhole felt Kowalski press a small metal object, a lock pick, into his flipper, then, in a lower voice Kowalski continued, "There's an old safe house in the Bronx Zoo, Skipper would never look for you there. The passcode is…"

"I can't, Kowalski," Blowhole handed him back the lock pick; careful to make sure no one else saw.

"Hoboken, from what Skipper's told us, is almost as bad as The Aquarium. I can't… I won't let you go through that again… because of me."

"And I can't escape, Kowalski," Blowhole protested, "If I escape, Skipper will be too focused on recapturing me, to realise what Doris is up to."

"We've defeated her…"

"You really think she isn't going to try again?"

"I could see if I can get you a transfer?"

"Doris would just break me out. Hoboken is the only place that can keep her out. Anyway, that would look suspicious for you."

"Blowhole, I am not going to let you be taken to Hoboken if I have to knock you out again and drag you…" Kowalski started work on Blowhole's handcuffs, intending to do just as he said. Suddenly, Blowhole slammed into Kowalski, attacking him, sending the penguin stumbling backwards a few feet.

"What was that for…?!" Kowalski mumbled in surprise. The action seemed too crude and illogical for his friend.

"Freeze, Blowhole! Into the van, now!" One of the police officers shouted, all three drawing their weapons. Skipper pulled him back protectively. Blowhole smiled as he was pushed roughly into the vehicle. His eyes met Kowalski's, possibly for the last time. On Kowalski's face was a strange expression, sad, yet understanding. It would seem Blowhole's actions weren't illogical after all.

* * *

"Great starving polar bears, he really hated you, Kowalski," Skipper joked, "Keep it up and you might just steal my arch enemy," skipper motioned for the team to begin the journey back home, "Well, you never can tell what makes an evil…"

"He's not evil." Kowalski snapped. Skipper gave him a curious look. In that moment, Kowalski had forgotten about his 'cover', about his loyalty to the penguins. He had made up his mind on who were the heroes and villains, and Blowhole wasn't a villain, not even when he had been tricked. After a few seconds, in a calmer, almost far off voice he continued, "Well… it wasn't his fault. Blowhole did what anyone would have done in his situation… What I would have done." Kowalski turned away from the group. He didn't want anyone to see his pained, almost tearful, expression. After all, he was already too close to the line of sympathising with the enemy for Skipper's comfort. He was surprised he hadn't already been tackled to the ground accompanied with shouts of 'Spy! There's no one we can trust, boys!' Spy. That was exactly what he was: a spy. He just wasn't sure who he was spying for.

"Kowalski…?"

"If anything… it's my fault, he is what he is today."

***T minus 8 is the point of no return; at this point Blowhole would be committed to the launch.**


	19. Hoboken

Blowhole examined the wall, lost in thought. It was hard to do the complicated calculations necessary to plan a 475th way to escape his cell, in his head (he wasn't allowed a piece of chalk lest he find some way to use it to break out) though he was still mystified as to how he would get past the guards outside the extra incredibly classified maximum security complex, "Hm... No, that's not right...x has to equal 237.554..."

Suddenly, Blowhole stiffened, forgetting what the number he was trying to remember, when he heard the distinctive creaking sound of the door at the end of corridor leading to his cell. Skipper had been so paranoid that he had a whole building built specifically to contain him. Normally the sound of the door opening wouldn't be alarming, but it was ten o'clock in the morning, and the door only ever opened at meals, or interrogation ,which was normally sometime in the middle of the night. He could hear the steady patter of webbed feet on the solid concrete. He couldn't see the person approaching, the steel door to his cell had no windows, only an security camera on the roof of his cell. This was then followed by a kind of outer cell, for exercise and interrogation, which had traditional bars.

A crack of light appeared, preceded by the grinding, whirring noise of his cell's first door, being opened.

"Are you sure you don't want one of my men to supervise?" a voice which Blowhole recognised as belonging to Special Agent Brown, the penguin who had been unlucky enough to receive the prestigious, though incredibly boring task of guarding Dr Blowhole.

"That won't be necessary, thanks." Another voice replied. Blowhole's heart leapt at the sound of the second penguin's voice, though immediately sunk. He's been 'hearing' Kowalski's voice all week. It was amazing just how many people his depressed brain decided sounded identical to Kowalski.

Slowly the crack of light grew, until the door finally opened. Blowhole didn't care who it was, and kept his back turned. It was probably Agent Bunsen; he sounded a lot like Kowalski.

"Before you start asking me where Doris is again, I honestly don't know," Blowhole sighed.

"So they've been grilling you about Doris?" Blowhole spun around, an overjoyed grin spreading across his face as he dragged himself towards the bars of the outer cell door to greet his friend, "I asked Skipper what he kept sending agents to ask you and, well, I got the standard answer."

"I really don't think there are that many classified things out there," Blowhole laughed.

"Well, when an innocent looking toy bunny rabbit is actually a cross bow, you'd be surprised," Kowalski's expression drooped as he looked past Blowhole at the dark cell behind him, "Are they... Treating you alright?" Kowalski asked.

"Yeah," Blowhole replied, though the increased number of scars and bruises told a different story, "It's not anything like the Aquarium. I guess anything's good after that."

"What about the other prisoners..."

"I'm in solitary confinement. I even have my own detail of specially trained guards."

"What about the fish..."

"You're starting to sound like my mom."

"Very funny." Blowhole's expression saddened.

"I've always wondered what would have happened if I'd celebrated." The cell went silent.

"You know, we were actually pretty much the same, until that day," Kowalski broke the silence.

"Skipper would probably say I was destined for evil from the start."

"Then despite the fact he claims to know you better than you know you're self, he doesn't know you at all," Kowalski returned, "In my opinion, if I'd gone home early instead of you, you and Skipper would be fighting Dr Kowalski." Once again the two lapsed into silence.

"So, how's the HQ?" Blowhole asked. He had a feeling Kowalski's visiting time was almost up, and he didn't want to waste the rare opportunity to talk to his friend on depressing matters.

"Not bad. Skipper 'in recognition of my bravery' has allowed me to keep inventing," Kowalski answered, "I don't suppose you have any plans you'd like me to prototype?"

"Where's the fun in designing something if you can't watch it explode the first time you switch it on?" Blowhole asked.

"You've got a point. I don't have much time to invent though. Skipper has me constantly designing new security systems for your cell. He still thinks you're going to escape..."

"I was afraid of that," Blowhole's expression turned concerned, "So he's ignoring Doris?"

"Pretty much. He doesn't think a girl could possibly be an evil mastermind. You'd have thought his experience with a pink bow and some live electrical wires would have taught him a lesson." Blowhole's concerned expression changed to a slightly mischievous smile.

"I've been rethinking about your offer..." Kowalski's grin outdid even Blowhole's.

"Let's make this look good for the cameras."

* * *

"In other news, the infamous Dr Blowhole escaped Hoboken Zoo after taking Lieutenant Kowalski, who was interrogating him at the time, hostage. Lieutenant Kowalski was later found a few miles from the facility at the side of a road," the news penguin seated at the desk announced. The screen changed to a press conference just outside Penguin Strategic Headquarters.

"Lieutenant Kowalski, everyone's surprised you were found unharmed." A reporter asked, "You were responsible for his capture, yet he didn't try to exact any kind of revenge?"

"No, it was all too frantic," Kowalski replied, "He didn't have time, but he did say the next time he saw me, well, I'm not sure it's suitable to repeat on national television."

"Lieutenant!" another reporter shouted, "Why do you think he chose to escape from jail now?"

"From what I heard on my previous mission, he's going after his sister," Kowalski replied, "He's a little mixed up, but he is trying to do the right thing. In my opinion, his sister is the one who's more dangerous…"

Skipper threw the remote at the screen, shattering it.

"Of all the insubordinate…!" Skipper shouted, "Of course Blowhole's the threat!"

The End


End file.
